Tel Aviv record first victory of the season; Lod keep winning in Division 2

Tel Aviv CC breathed a sigh of relief as they reorded their first victory of the season. They defeated Dimona C by 152 runs at Hadar Yosef on Friday. Ramle remain undefeated after beating Ashdod A, whilst in Division 2 Lod moved up to second with a resounding win over Negev Academy.

Winning the toss Tel Aviv elected to bat first and were soon in trouble when veteran Jacky Divekar took a wicket with his first ball. Sanjay Gupte was top scorer with 62 and featured in two significant partnerships of 48 with Stanley Perlman and 62 with Dovi Myers (35). Tel Aviv got to 224 with the help of 61 extras from the Dimona bowlers and keepers. Best bowler was undoubtedly Divekar who took 4/27 and bowled an excellent length.

When Dimona went into bat Tel Aviv were thinking of the 23 dropped catches this season. They got it right this time taking 6 out of 6 catches, including a brilliant effort by Paul Thomas at slip, and two stumpings for wicket keeper Steve Leigh.

Menashe Wadhawker took 3 for 24 as Ashdod A put in a good bowling and fielding effort to restrict Ramle to just 170 in Ashdod on Saturday, with Shimon Penkar (33) and Daniel Pingle (39) top scoring for the visitors. But Ramle's bowling was too strong for the Ashdod batsman, with speedster Isaac Talkar (4 for 19) and Raymond Talkar (3 for 29) bowling out the hosts for 138.

In Division 2, Madhukar Thappa (53) and David Dhokarkar (57*) both scored half centuries as Lod amassed 255 for 8 against the Negev Academy. Thappa then took 3 for 22 as the youngsters were all out for just 87.