Weekend of draws sees Young Ashdod move top of Division 1
The weekends fixtures began on Friday with Ra'anana being held to a draw by Be'er Sheva at Hadar Yosef
Israel Cricket Association
11-May-2009
The weekends fixtures began on Friday with Ra'anana being held to a draw by Be'er Sheva at Hadar Yosef, and the draws continued into Saturdays games between Young Ashdod and Lions Lod, and Lions Be'er Sheva and Lod Petah Tikva, which produced a rather bizarre looking scorecard.
The Division 2 match between Lions Be'er Sheva and Lod Petah Tikva in Be'er Sheva on Saturday produced what may go down as one of the most remarkable innings in cricket history. Ravi Khanna batted for 118 balls, scored 6 not out, including a boundary! Yes, thats 6 runs in 118 balls. Take away the boundary and its two runs in 117 balls. Khanna's strike rate of 5.05 was actually quite aggressive in comparison to his captain Avner Waskar who scored 1 not out off 30 balls, a strike rate of 3.33. So how did this farcial situation come about? Lions BS amassed 334, Lod PT lost their openers for zero runs between them, decided victory was out the question so shut up shop, barricades and all, and batted out for the draw. Rahul Dravid would have struggled to do a better job than Ravi 'The Wall II' Khanna. Lions BS set up their innings with a 219-run opening stand between Moshe Saul, who went on to score 125, and Robin Shapurkar, who was first out for 83. Thereafter they stuttered somewhat before declaring their innings closed after 40 overs on 334 for 9. Having reduced Lod PT to 19 for 3, the hosts would have been thinking not whether they would win or not, but the size of their victory. However they had actually become victims of their own success - they had scored too many runs and taken wickets too quickly to leave their visitors any chance of winning, so playing for the draw was their only option, something they executed superbly, finishing on 125 for 4, including 89 runs in extras.
Ra'anana had to be content with a draw against Be'er Sheva at Hadar Yosef on Friday, as the visitors hung on with just one wicket left. Batting first, Ra'anana built up their innings patiently with Steven Shein (57) and Adrian Vard (28) adding 78 for the 4th wicket, allowing a declaration at 225 for 8 after 40 overs. Be'er Sheva started brightly, with Naor Gudker (36) riding his luck as he took the attack to the seamers, but then seemed to press the self destruct button with two of their top four being run out to boost Ra'anana's push for victory. At 94 for 6 Ra'anana were firm favorites, but captain Moshe Charikar (50) frustrated the home side with a combination of dogged defence and powerful hitting. Although he was bowled off the last ball of the innings, he had done enough to secure his team a draw with one wicket in hand, closing on 176/9.
The powerful Lions Lod top order was reduced to 96 for 5 against Young Ashdod in Ashdod on Saturday, but Kapila (51) led a lower order fight back which took them to 220/8, batting out their 45 overs. The hosts made a solid start to their reply, reaching 64 before losing their first wicket. The Lions spinners then turned the screws on the Young Ashdod middle order, with Benny David 3 for 34 and Anim Solomon 2 for 9 amongst the wickets as Young Ashdod batted out for a draw, finishing on 176 for 7.