Massil takes 6 wickets; century for Ramli

Ramli - a century for Young Ashdod on debut © Israel Cricket

Isaac Massil returned the remarkable figures of six wickets for just nine runs, as Lions Lod humiliated Ra'anana at Hadar Yosef on Friday. Ra'anana had done well to dismiss Lions to 134, but any hopes of reaching their target were dashed when Massil picked up three wickets in his second over to leave the innings in tatters at 34 for 5, as Ra'anana managed just 54 to lose by 80 runs. Ashdod A bounced back from a heavy defeat with a big 146-run win over Dimona C, and a century from Ramli (125) gave Young Ashdod victory by 6-wickets over Ramle.

The Ra'anana scorecard resembled a poultry farm with five ducks, as the Lions Lod bowlers, led by new Sri Lankan quick bowler Kapila (2 for 31), the impeccable David Massil (8-5-10-1) and then Isaac Massil (6 for 9) gave a near-perfect display of bowling. Kapila was particularly hostile, picking up the first wicket of Reuven Bergman (4), clean bowled by a yorker after peppering him with short pitched bowling. Adrian Vard (5) then fell to a good catch by wicketkeeper Shailesh Bangerra off David Massil, and although Ra'anana reached drinks without further loss, Isaac Massil, bowling off just three paces because of a leg injury, changed the game in the 12th over by removing Steven Shein (18), Gabi Schachat (0) and Rafi Zauer (0), to end the match as a contest.

Earlier, Gerrit Grundling (3 for 25) was the best of a good Ra'anana bowling line up that would have been happy with their effort of dismissing Lod for 134. Only Isaac Massil (30) made a significant contribution, but if their batting wasn't as fluent as normal, like true champions they still managed to defend a low score.

In Saturday's Division 1 action, Ashdod A, who were trounced in their opening game by Neve Yonatan, amassed 302 against Dimona C in Dimona. Menashe Wadhawker (67), Romi Chaulkar (40), Joel Reuben (39) all scored runs for the visitors. Spinner Danny Malyankar then took three wickets for just one run, as Dimona were dismissed for 156, with 30 from Levy Divekar the only significant contribution.

Batting first in Ashdod, Ramle would have been more than satisfied with their total of 231, with Daniel Pingle (40) and Isaac Talkar (44) setting up the big score. However, Ramli, a native of Chennai currently living in Israel working as a computer instructor, scored a magnificent 125 in his first league game, which along with contributions from Efraim Gerrard (33*) and Dani Malyanakar (30), gave Young Ashdod a 6-wicket win with seven overs to spare.

The only Division 2 fixture of the weekend saw Be'er Sheva A edge out the Negev Academy by two wickets in Be'er Sheva. Naor Gudker took four for 20 to help restrict the youngsters to 151, but that was almost enough, and but for a couple of dropped catches would have been enough, as Be'er Sheva struggled to victory to cement second place on the table. Shimshon Chordekar (31) top scored.

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