Eilat win high scoring thriller despite Schachat ton

Schachat celebrates his century against Eilat © Israel Cricket

The newly laid pitch in Dimona will hopefully play host to plenty of cricket yet, but it will take something extraordinary to match a game as exciting as Friday's clash between Sitar Eilat and Ra'anana 2.

Gabi Schachat continued the excellent form he has shown since returning from India with the Israel youth team, scoring his first century, but even his effort was not enough as Ra'anana were bowled out for 305 in pursuit of Eilat's total of 308.

A massive opening partnership of 241 between Eliezer Divekar (61) and Roger Meyer (97) laid the foundation for Eilat piling on the runs on a good batting pitch with a quick outfield, with Ra'anana hardly helping themselves by leaking 76 runs in extras. Meyer played particularly well, falling just short of what would have been a well deserved century when he was bowled by Akiva Lieberman (2 for 41) who was the pick of the visiting bowlers.

Peter DeSouza bowling for Eilat © Israel Cricket

308 seemed to be a winning score, but Israel U19 hopefuls Reuven Bergman and Schachat set about making a fight of it, finding the boundary at ease in a 2nd wicket stand of 81 in less than 10 overs, before Bergman (38) was out to a good running catch by Peter DeSouza at midoff. Charlton Book (40) and Schachat continued to keep the momentum going, but with their partnership worth 100 Book was brilliantly run out by a direct hit attempting a quick single to Daniel Tzirekar at midwicket.

The new pitch in Dimona © Israel Cricket

Schachat brought up his century with a single, but Ra'anana's players soon turned their attention from celebrating the milestone to securing a win that had seemed to be in their hands. With the score on 274, Anthony Harris (50) was bowled by Tzirekar, Schachat (100) was out leg before to DeSouza, David Wiseman (5) and Mikki Cohen (0) were both out to Tzirekar (3 for 15) as well, and when Lieberman (10) was caught on the boundary, Ra'anana were down to their last pair having lost 5 wickets for 12 runs, with 19 still required.

Bryan Choritz and Dov Yarden prolonged the excitement with some scrambled singles, and with just 3 wanted with 7 balls left it was still anybody's game. However with the last ball of the 39th over DeSouza produced a perfect yorker to bowl Choritz (3) and give Eilat victory by the tiniest of margins.

Be'er Sheva A edged out Dimona C in the Division 1 Negev derby, reaching their target of 196 with 4 wickets and 4 balls to spare. Menashe Valvatker (39) and Harinder Mishra (31) both contributed for Be'er Sheva. Earlier, Sunny Ashtamker (66) and Oren Chinchulkar (31) were amongst the runs for Dimona C, whilst 14-year old Shifron Waskar bowled well to take 3 for 39.

Gabi Schachat drives on his way to 100 against Eilat © Israel Cricket

Neve Yonatan continued their excellent form in Division 2, beating Lions Be'er Sheva by 107 runs. Matan Razpurker gave his hopes of earning selection for the Israel U19 team a boost with an innings of 39 and 4 for 34 with the ball. Shamu Razpurker could 'only' score 45, following his hattrick of centuries, and Aby Daniels scored 49 in Neve Yonatan's total of 243/9. Ronen Waskar took 4 for 51. In reply Norman Sankar scored 36* but Lions were never in the game against a team who are yet to lose this season.