The Bet Shemesh Royals proved that last week's win over YMCB was no fluke as they beat the KAT Israemploy team by 13 runs over the weekend in an absorbing contest in the Israel Night Cricket League.
KAT batted first and raced to 29 off the first two overs before the Wigman brothers, with two wickets each, and Gadi Barnett, with three wickets, put the brakes on as KAT lost six wickets from overs three to six. However, they still managed a competitive total score of 87 thanks to debutant Simon Levine's 12 and Chaim Emmett’s 15. Royals captain Yonni Sidelsky also picked up two wickets.
The Royals started their reply dismally, as they reached 10 runs off the first six overs, but some very intelligent batting by Yonah Barnett and Yehuda Bloch (40-run partnership) and Eli Shaw and Gadi Barnett (41-run partnership) meant that the last pair of Alex and Arieh Lewis just had to play out the final four overs for a second consecutive victory.
For KAT, the ever-reliable Ron Sher and Garth Kaufman picked up two wickets each in a disappointing night for the team that finished third in the league last year.
Elsewhere, Pearl Dental and Ra’anana Raiders were involved in a match that was decided off the very last ball, with Pearl winning by one run.
Ra’anana batted first and were disappointed to score 82 as the last four overs, yielded only four runs. Mikki Cohen was top run-scorer with 24, while Micha Schachat and Ziv Gould scored 37 runs between them. For Pearl, David Wiseman picked up two wickets, while Rafi Karp grabbed three.
With four overs of the match remaining, Matt Hoffman and Gould combined with a wicket apiece leaving batsmen Gerrit Grundling and Karp needing five runs off the final over for victory, a feat they managed, but off the very last ball.
Iain Levy and Daniel Hyman top-scored with a partnership of 34, while 12-year-old Gidi Hilkowitz took two wickets and Hoffman three.
Modi’in Young Lions, playing with five juniors, comprehensively beat Gold Insurance as their total of 94 was too much for Gold, who scored only 39. Yogev Nagavkar and Emmanuel Solomon top-scored with a partnership of 34 as Ilan Peretz took two wickets.
Gold were never in the game as Avial Varsulkar and Yogev Nagavkar took two wickets apiece, while Solomon picked up a remarkable four wickets, all in the same over which included a hat-trick.
Gold’s night got better in their second match of the evening as they handed YMCB their fifth consecutive loss of the campaign. YMCB scored a decent 72 thanks to captain Joe Neppe an Adam Finkelstein’s 27-run partnership. Gold managed 115 winning by 43 runs as Yitzchak Treister and Jeff Tibber scored 37 runs and Alex Lewis/Natan Wigman scored 32.
As we head into the Chanukah holidays, the league takes a two-week break.