By, Danny Caro
2 min read
ByDanny Caro, Danny Caro
Star Sixes retained the NJCL Super Sixes trophy, defeating Salford Comets in a final dominated by bat over ball.
Salford won the toss and elected to bat. Openers Elliot Koffman and Jonny Wineberg made good progress, Koffman hitting Black for a huge six over long-on, but, against some accurate bowling from Star, could not find any consistently big hitting.
Having put on 39 for the first wicket, Koffman mistimed a drive off Shaia Rabinovitz and Dov Black took a measure of revenge with an excellent catch at long-off.
Jeremy Korn joined Wineberg, who kept the strike and accelerated his innings with a straight four and six off Rabinovitz. However, Star's bowlers held their nerve to keep Salford to 57-1 in their five overs with Wineberg on 29 not out. A competitive total but one that Star would expect to reach.
Daniel Paul, opening the Salford bowling, had Star's openers playing and missing but could not make the much-needed breakthrough. As the inning progressed, Shaia Rabinovitz and Akiva Lieberman started to open their shoulders with Lieberman hitting two big sixes to cow corner off Wineberg. Salford were also leaking extras - 17 in the innings - and the match was slipping away.
The end came in the final over when a no-ball hit for a single saw Star reach their target of 58 without losing a wicket. Lieberman finished on 25 and Rabinovitz on 16.
Semi-Finals
Earlier, Star Sixes beat Maccabi Lions and Salford Comets beat Manchester Maccabi.
Against the Lions, Star batted first and posted 64 off five overs with Akiva Lieberman hitting an undefeated 32 before retiring. Black contributed with 10 and Rabinovitz with 12, as Star took the Lions to task.
In reply, Snyder showed great resistance for the Lions hitting 25 not out, but the rest of his colleagues could make little impression as the Lions could only make 46-4 in reply.
Rabinovitz took 2-4 off his over and Shonfield chipped in with a wicket.
Manchester Maccabi were put in to bat against Salford Comets and were quickly in trouble with Daniel Paul bowling Maccabi captain, Ray Tammam, for a duck in the first over and Elliot Koffman bowling their other opener, Adam Goldstone for just 4.
With only nine scored off the first two overs, Steven Allweis (25 not out) and Sacks (10 not out) rebuilt the innings to finish on 47-2 after their five overs.
In reply, Salford made a solid start with openers Jeremy Korn and Elliot Koffman putting on 22 from their first two overs. However, a mix up in trying a quick single saw Koffman run out for 6 and, in the same over, Jonny Wineberg skied a miscued drive to Allweis at mid-on off Tammam for a first ball duck.
When Paul was also run out on the first ball of the fourth over, Salford were suddenly in trouble at 30-3. Korn was joined by Robert Marks and, together, they saw Salford home Marks finishing on 7 not out and Korn sweeping Allweis for four to go to 22 not out with Salford making 51-3.
Junior match
North Manchester took on South Manchester in the Annual match for Under 14s and it was the South, captained by Daniel Glicher, who scored an impressive victory by 7 wickets.
North batted first and started steadily with Joe Lewis hitting 15 and Rafi Dines 11 before the wickets started to fall.
Glicher (2-4), Alex Benjamin (2-3) and Ilan Stonefield (2-4) impressed with the ball, severely restricting North's progress. No other batsman managed double figures as North were skittled out for 54.
In reply, South stated well with Ilan Mesrie reaching 10 before losing his wicket. Jamie Benjamin batted superbly for his 22 to see South home in worsening gloom.
It was just left to Steve Glicher, Chair of the NJCL, to hand the trophy to his son for what was a deserved victory.