A three horse race for the Division 3 title; Kassokar takes a hat trick for Lod

Lions Be'er Sheva host Diamonds on Saturday, whilst the Negev Academy travel to Hadar Yosef to take on Petah Tikva, with any of the three sides able to win the title and earn promotion to Division 2. All three teams are level on points, although Diamonds have a superior run rate to the other two. That should mean that a victory for them would guarantee them promotion, although if the Academy win by a huge margin, which they did do against Petah Tikva earlier in the season, they could close the run rate gap. Lions Be'er Sheva would have to first of all defeat Diamonds, and then hope that Petah Tikva beat the Academy for their promotion dream to be realized.

In last week's Division 3 action, Petah Tikva earned their second win of the season, beating Dimona A by 3 wickets. Rachamim Charikar scored 42 not out for Dimona, but Yossi Satamkar (31), Tikki Nimbalkar (18) and Bension Solomon (22*) ensured the win for Petah Tikva.

The Diamonds weren't at their best but were still too strong for Kiryat Gat. Avner Charikar (4 for 29) helped restrict the Diamonds to 141, but 3 wickets each for Mahlesh (3 for 17) and Sahil (3 for 14) dismissed Kiryat Gat for 117.

Samson Ashtamkar (41 and 3/34) continued his excellent form of recent weeks, taking Lions Be'er Sheva to a 34 run win over Petah Tikva in a game played two weeks ago.

All the matches in Division 2 have now been completed. With little to play for since Tel Aviv sealed the title weeks ago, Lod continued their revival with a narrow 9 run win over Dimona C. Star of the day was Eldad Kassokar who took 4 for 14, including a hat trick in the 30th over which changed the course of the game. Dimona C, boosted by an innings of 65 by Dani Ashtamkar and 36 not out by Jacky Divekar, looked set for victory before Kassokar struck to bowl them out for 193.

Earlier, Hannan Sogadson scored an undefeated 40, Ravi Khanna 34, and Akiva Shimshon 33 as Lod reached 202 for 9. Divekar claimed 5 for 21 in yet another excellent bowling display.

Neve Yonatan also finished the season strongly, scoring a comprehensive 43 run win over bottom team Ramle. Shimshon Razpurker (62) top scored in Neve Yonatan's total of 174, before Aby Daniels (3 for 39) and Benzie Kehimkar (2 for 4 in 7 overs) combined to dismiss Ramle for 131. Samson Pingle scored 40.