Young Ashdod thwarted by Perlman; Lions devour Ra'anana

Any hopes Young Ashdod had of clinching the league title on Saturday at Hadar Yosef were put on hold, comprehensively outplayed by Tel Aviv. Lions Lod easily defeated Ra'anana in their last game to move top of the standings, but Young Ashdod, have another chance to win the league this weekend when they play Be'er Sheva in their final game.

Losing the toss, Young Ashdod were flayed all over the ground. In an onslaught on their bowlers Stanley Perlman must surely have set an Israeli record when he took only 23 balls and 27 minutes to complete his 50. He was finally dismissed for 84 off only 48 balls in a knock that included 18 fours. He and Dovi Myers put on 137 for the first wicket in only 65 minutes in 14 overs, the 100 coming up in 8 overs. Myers went on to score 54 as Tel Aviv amassed 256 all out in 33 overs. For the visitors Ephraim Jhirad took 5 for 47 and Eitan Benjamin 3 for 59.

Young Ashdod were reeling at 3 for 8 as Alan Moss showed that a 4 year lay off has not impaired his bowling prowess as he took 2 wickets in his second over. At the other end Lushenko Perreira gave an excellent display of really quick bowling taking 4/50. Among the Young Ashdod batsmen only Raymond Aston (47) and captain Shai Penkar (30) showed any resistance as they could manage 204. In addition to his batting performance Perlman returned figures of 8/3/27/2.

A fine knock of 96 by David Silver, who shared a century partnership with Adrian Vard (44), ensured Ra'anana posted a useful score of 206 against Lions Lod at Hadar Yosef on Friday. However an onslaught from Yefet Nagavkar, who scored a magnificent 81, together with Shalom Rubin (36) quickly took the game away from Ra'anana. Eshkol Solomon and Anim Solomon finished off the job in emphatic style with undefeated 40's, giving Lions a 8-wicket win with almost 10 overs to spare.

In the other Division 1 game of the weekend, Be'er Sheva remained without a win this year, going down by 6-wickets to Ashdod A in Ashdod. Despite a positive start, Be'er Sheva crashed from 106 for 1 to 153 all out, with 2 run outs hardly helping their cause. Danny Malyankar took 3 for 21 with his off spinners. Menashe Wadhawker continued his good form with 69*, and Hillel Awasker contributed 33*, as Ashdod A reached their target very comfortably.

In one Division 3 game played on Friday, Ra'anana 2 finished their season on a high note with a 7-wicket win over Negev 2. Nir Dikorkar top scored with 36 for Negev 2, but their total of 134 proved no match for Ra'anana, for whom Charlton Book led the charge with an innings of 78*.