Young Ashdod, Lod CC keep on winning

Young Ashdod scored their fourth win in as many games, defeating Lions Be'er Sheva by 116 runs, to move to the top of the Division 1 table. Star performer for the home team was Shai Gefen, who took 6 for 32, as Be'er Sheva crumbled to 85 all out. Opener Rimon Nagawkar was the only player to put together a worthy contribution, but he was out to Gefen having scored 34.

Earlier, Young Ashdod, having won the toss and decided to bat, struggled somewhat to 201 all out. Shai Penkar top scored with 52 not out, and Danny Malyankar (48) continued his excellent start to the season, but all the other batsman failed, with only Shmuel Moses (18) managing to reach double figures.

In Division 2, Lod extended their perfect start to the season, as they inflicted the Negev Academy their first defeat. In what was supposed to have been a closely contested match between the only undefeated teams in the division, Lod proved to be easily the superior team and won by 137 runs. Ravi Khanna (52) Asher Penkar (44) and Avner Waskar (40) all added useful contributions as Lod reached 252. Solomon Varsulkar (4 for 47) and Ronen Waskar (2 for 46) both bowled well, but the Academy would have been dissapointed to have let Lod accumulate such a big total.

Joel Varsulkar picked up four quick wickets to have the Academy team in early trouble, and although Artur Arutinyan (31) and Bar Ilya (27) tried to mount a recovery, the task was just too great, and once they were out the remaining players fell cheaply.

Diamond Cricket Club scored another impressive win, this time over Kiryat Gat by 137 runs. Batting first, Anish Zaveri scored 88, and Sanjay Shah made 27. With a couple of other contributions down the order, and Kiryat Gat giving away 77 extras, Diamond reached an imposing 284. Kiryat Gat were never in the game, bowled out for just 148, as left arm medium pacer Nirav, bowling superbly, took 6 for 20. The margin of victory could have been even greater if not for the efforts of number 10 batsman Joshua Shaporkar, who scored 36 to add some respectability to his team's score.

Petah Tikva remain the only team in Division 2 without a win, going down by 5 wickets to Dimona A. In a highscoring game, Petah Tikva batted first and scored 261. Shai Samuel top scored with an undefeated 87, and Ezekiel Penkar contributed 53. Despite their good batting performance, Petah Tikva's bowlers were unable to contain the Dimona batsmen, who eased to victory in just 38 overs. The main contributions came from Rakhanim Charikar, who finished not out on 67, and Sasson Soloman who scored 48.