Action packed weekend as T20 kicks off

The ICA T20 tournament got going over the weekend. The 17 teams are divided into five groups, and with just the group winners progressing to the next round, nobody could afford to slip up. Two teams already secured their place in Round 2, with Ra'anana 1 easily beating Ra'anana 2 on Friday in Group A, which was reduced to just the two teams after Tel Aviv withdrew from the tournament, whilst in the three-team Group B, Sri Lanka Tel Aviv won both their matches, including a very narrow 3-run win over Lod Rangers, meaning they progress to play Ra'anana 1 for a spot in the semi-finals.

Sri Lanka Jerusalem were extremely impressive in trouncing both Lions Be'er Sheva and Dimona C in Group D. Batting second in both matches, the Jerusalem team needed less than 12 overs to reach their target of 150 against Lions with 9 wickets in hand, and exactly 12 overs to chase Dimona C's 138, this time without losing a wicket. Group C is evenly poised with Lions Lod restricting Ashdod A to 60/8 in their innings, before winning for the loss of just 1 wicket, needing just 7 overs. Petah Tikva put up a brave fight against Neve Yonatan, scoring 129/7, although Neve Yonatan had little trouble knocking off the runs, with Nadav Razpurker (51) and Yaniv Razpurker (41*) guiding them to a 7-wicket win with more than 5 overs in hand.

The three-team ICA U19 league also got going this week, with the combined Ashdod/Lod team beating Ra'anana by three wickets in Lod on Monday. Itamar Kehimkar starred with 60 for the AshLod team. A four-team U17 league also got underway today with a match in Dimona between the two Negev teams.