Shetty stars for Rangers; Sri Lanka Tel Aviv the team to beat

A busy weekend of Division 1 action has left the table interestingly poised. In Friday's game in Lod, Lod Rangers put in a superb performance with the ball to defeat Ra'anana in a low scoring game, whilst on Saturday, Young Ashdod remain without a win this season after being defeated by Sri Lanka Jerusalem, and Lions Lod's perfect start to the season was ended by Sri Lanka Tel Aviv who are now the only team in the elite league with a perfect record.

Ra'anana would have fancied their chances of chasing down their target of 134 against Lod Rangers, particularly after a steady start by openers Dovi Myers and Daniel Hyman took who added 42 for the first wicket. But a loose shot from Myers (14) to the very impressive Kapila opened the door for the home side. Kapila then struck a double blow removing Josh Evans (4) and Danny Hotz (0) in successive deliveries, before Naveen Shetty took over, bowling a superb spell of swinging yorkers to rip through the visitors middle and lower order, finishing with the amazing figures of six for 10, including a magnificent hat trick, each of his wickets clean bowled, as Rangers secured a 36-run win.

The table says Young Ashdod have played four lost four, but in fairness to them they have been edged out by very narrow margins in most of those games. On Saturday in Ashdod, Sri Lanka Jerusalem chased down their 168 run target with just two wickets remaining.

Defending champions Lions Lod, having made a strong start to the season with three wins from three, eventually came unstuck, defeated by the impressive Sri Lanka Tel Aviv team in another low scoring game in Lod on Saturday. Having dismissed Tel Aviv for just 139, Lod's normally powerful batting unit mustered just 123 in reply, Menaka taking four for 23 as Tel Aviv now became the team to beat.