Young Ashdod secure promotion to Premier League; 4 wickets in 1 over for Academy star Varsulkar

In a dramatic end to the league season, Young Ashdod scored a remarkable win against Dimona C, which saw them edge out city rivals Neve Yonatan for the one promotion spot to the Premier League. Both clubs finished equal on 28 points (7 wins and 1 loss) in Division 1, but Young Ashdod had the superior net run rate. Well behind on run rate going into the match, Young Ashdod knew they had not only to win, but to win in style. Having been set 172 runs to win, they smashed their way to their target in just 14.3 overs, which was enough to boost their run rate above that of Neve Yonatan.

Having won the toss and elected to bat first, Dimona C were in big trouble at 51 for 7, with swing bowler Raymond Ashton bowling superbly and having picked up 5 wickets. Jackie Divekar, batting surprisingly low down the order, together with David Talkar, added 78 for the 9th wicket before Divekar was stumped off Avi Talkar for 50. Talkar finished not out on 17 and Dimona had done well to recover to 171 all out. Aston was by far the pick of the bowling, returning the superb figures of 5 for 17. Eitan Benjamin, playing in his first match of the season, took 2 for 39.

With the calculators working over time on the boundary edge, Young Ashdod began their run chase knowing they would need to score their runs in less than 20 overs to overtake Neve Yonatan at the top of the table. Although Danny Malyankar (1) was out early, Talkar and veteran Solly Moses soon began smashing the ball to all parts of the Ashdod park. Talkar fell for 59, but Moses just kept hitting, finishing not out on 76 and taking his team to victory, and to the 2004 Premier League, in just 14.3 overs.

Whilst the Division 2 title was decided months ago, an interesting battle has been playing out between the Negev Academy and Diamond Cricket Club for second place. Equal on points going into their final league games on Saturday, both had comfortable wins, but Diamond finished second with a vastly superior net run rate.

Having started the season shakily, the Diamond outfit has got better and better over the past few weeks. At Hadar Yosef on Saturday Dimona A, who batted first and scored 181, were no match for them. Prashant hit a good 83 not out, and Sanjay Shah contributed 30, as the Diamond's won by 4 wickets. Earlier, left arm seamer Nirav took 4 for 32 in Dimona's innings.

The Negev Academy have had a fantastic season by all accounts. Apart from a hiccup against Kiryat Gat, they have been consistently impressive, led from the front by player-coach George Sheader. Made up almost entirely by U15 players, finishing third is a marvelous achievement. They finished their season in style, thumping bottom team Petah Tikva by 6 wickets. Spinners Ronen Waskar and Solomon Varsulkar have bagged almost 50 wickets between them this season, and were largely responsible for a dramatic Petah Tikva batting collapse. Varsulkar took 4 wickets in 1 over, taking 4 for 4 in 3 overs altogether, and Waskar took 3 for 14, as Petah Tikva were all out for 53. Not a single batsman managed to reach double figures, and if not for 21 extras their score would have been even more embarrassing. Yossi Satamkar took 3 for 19 as Petah Tikva tried to defend their total, but that was never going to happen and victory was achieved after 14 overs.

The season continues with the first round of the ICA Cup over the following 2 weeks, with the quarter finals, semi finals, and final scheduled for next month.