Be'er Sheva upset Young Ashdod to hand Lions Lod the league

Lions Lod successfully defended their Division 1 championship over the weekend, without even playing. Instead they received help from the unlikeliest of sources, Be'er Sheva, who recorded their first win of the season, defeating Young Ashdod by 36 runs, an upset of the biggest proportions.

Sport, and cricket in particular, has a knack for throwing up surprises, right when they are least expected. Young Ashdod could have been excused for planning their party well before their final league game on Saturday. Despite getting well beaten last weekend by Tel Aviv, the only team that stood between Young Ashdod and the Dudi Silbowitz Trophy was Be'er Sheva, a team who has been thumped in all of their 8 games this season and will be playing their cricket next season in Division 2. However a spectacular batting collapse, orchestrated by the Gudker brothers, Naor (3 for 19) and Benny (3 for 30) saw Young Ashdod crumble from 157 for 2 to 181 all out. Not even a brilliant century from Shlomo Dhokarker (112) was enough. He received support at the top of the order from Shai Penkar (17), Eitan Benjamin (15) and Efraim Jhirad (14), but thereafter it was a Gudker show - Israel international Raymond Aston one of three batsman to score zero. Earlier, Benjamin added three more wickets to his tally for the season, but Be'er Sheva did a great job in reaching 217 for 7. Yogesh top scored with 45, Benny Gudker made 34 and George Sheader scored 27.

Lions winning the league is indeed a case of poetic justice. The only reason Young Ashdod were in the running for the league title at all was because Lions had been docked 10 points for registration irregularities at the beginning of the season. They remain easily the top team in Israel, winning all their matches except for one hiccup against Tel Aviv.