Bacher blasts South Africa to cricket gold

Daniel Harrisberg, junior player of the tournament, collecting his award from Adam Bacher © Israel Cricket

In a one-sided final, Wayne Myers and Ryan Maron got the South African innings off to a good start with a half century opening stand, laying the foundation for Bacher, who was happy to let other batsmen perform during the league matches, but took center stage in the final. His century South African included six sixes.

Steven Liebrecht contributed a quick 40, before Jeremy Bayer joined his captain and the real mayhem began. The two added 140 in just 19 overs, and with lusty late hitting from Marius Barnett, the South Africans were able to top 350. Australian bowler, Gary Litinsky, who had an excellent tournament, took 4 for 70. Never in with a chance of victory, Australia lost both openers with just 3 runs on the board, and eventually crumbled to 138 all out. Jeremy Weiss (35) was top scorer for the Australians, and David Lever (3 for 27) the best of the South African bowlers.

Action from the bronze medal match, Israel v Great Britain © Israel Cricket

The bronze medal was won by Great Britain, who defeated Israel by 66 runs. Batting first, Alex Haffner and Lawrence Bensusan both scored half centuries to lift Great Britain to 218. Isaac Massil was once again Israel's outstanding bowler, taking 4 for 22, including three wickets in the final over of the innings. Israel's reply started off badly, with a wicket in the very first over, and an unfortunately all too frequent top order collapse left the home team 40 for 4. Sanjay Gupta (26) and David Massil (21) kept Israel's hopes alive before two runs outs brought an end to the innings and gave a deserved win to Great Britain. Richard Reggel (3 for 31) was the most successful of a disciplined bowling attack.