Young Ashdod lead after derby victory

The Division 1 title race remains wide open with three rounds of matches still to be played. In a full weekend of action, Young Ashdod moved to the top of the table with a narrow 2-wicket win over neighbors Ashdod A, Lions Lod trounced Be'er Sheva by 8 wickets, and Ra'anana edged past Tel Aviv by 6 runs.

Chasing 178 to win, Eitan Benjamin scored an undefeated 57 to take Young Ashdod to victory over their city rivals. Israel U19 star Alex Ozer contributed 30, and Raymond Aston scored 26. Hillel Awasker took 3 for 30.

Earlier, the Aston family left the Ashdod's innings in tatters at 4 for 3, with dad Abe (4 for 36) and son Raymond (2 for 32) amongst the wickets. Danny Malyankar salvaged the innings with a fine 82, but the tail crumbled as quickly as the top order, with Ashdod slumping from 141 for 4 to 177 all out.

Asked to bat first, Ra'anana built their innings patiently against tight Tel Aviv bowling, with Des Moss (24), Rafi Zauer (22) and David Silver (37) all making contributions at the top of the order. With wickets in hand, Adrian Vard (36) and Gal Matz (29*) piled on the runs in the final 10 overs, which yielded 73 runs to take Ra'anana to 198.

Tel Aviv's reply couldn't have got off to a worse possible start with Steve Leigh out first ball of the innings, and Paul Thomas (4) run out shortly afterwards. However Shai Samuels (28) and Sanjay Gupta (44) steadied the innings, before both were out in consecutive balls with the score on 85. Dovi Myers continued his excellent form of recent weeks, showing good timing and placement to keep the scoreboard ticking over and Tel Aviv in with a chance of victory. Lucky to survive a dropped catch and a missed stumping, Myers brought up his half century, but just as though it seemed he had the game under control with 12 runs wanted off the final 2 overs, he tried to loft Matz over mid on, only to be caught by Danny Brill for 59. With the departure of Myers went Tel Aviv's chance of victory, and they lost their final 2 wickets in the last over, all out for 192.

Be'er Sheva were not expecting their first league win of the season to come against Lions Lod, and they did not surprise themselves with anything other than a resounding defeat at Hadar Yosef. Batting first, the pace of Isaac Massil (4 for 22) and Janeth D'Silva (4 for 13), was too hot for the visitors, all out for 84. Only Mishra Hirendar (26) offered any resistance in an innings where wicketkeeper Shai Bangerra excelled with five catches. Yefet Nagavkar (53) was in explosive mood with the bat, hitting three 6's and five 4's to take Lod to their target inside 10 overs.

Division 2 is heading for a closing day championship decider, after Lod maintained the pressure on leaders Ramle with a 6-wicket win over Diamonds. Lod timed their run chase to perfection, reaching the 163 they required for victory with 8 balls remaining in the innings. With two matches to play, Lod are now just four points adrift of Ramle. The two clubs meet on the final day of the season.

In one Division 3 match played at Hadar Yosef on Friday, Kiryat Gat defeated Ra'anana 2.