Salford will take on South Manchester in the final of the Northern Jewish Cricket League 9-a-side Twenty:20 after coming through their respective semi-finals.
Salford were given an almighty scare by a Maccabi Lions team that fielded seven players aged under 16. Salford openers Zevi Saunders and Elliot Koffman put on 50 for the first wicket at more than seven an over. Koffman and Jonny Wineburg continued to take the game to the Lions with Wineburg blasting 30 off 22 balls.
The Lions battled on and there were good spells from Alex Benjamin, Yonny Morrison and Jamie Benjamin, which saw them take six further wickets to leave Salford on 140-8.
In reply, veteran opener Anthony Gellman blasting 30 off 18 balls for the Lions. Rafi Dines and Mark Stein took the score to 65 off the first 10 overs, before Stein was bowled by Koffman. Max Lever and Dines made steady progress until was the first Dines to retire, having reached his 30.
Needing 13 from the last 12 deliveries, the Lions ran out of steam and lost by three runs.
South Manchester claimed a four-wicket success over Manchester Maccabi. Excellent spells from Dovid Black (3-16), Shaya Rabinovitz (3-9) and Akiva Lieberman restricted Maccabi to 94. Ray Tammam top-scoring with 22. Josh Danski also worked the fielders with some innovative batting.
A partnership of 58 between David Shonfield and man-of-the-match Dovid Black got the South reply off to a solid start.
Maccabi fought back well with the excellent off-spin of Andrew Williams pegging South back. With six wickets down, Maccabi scented victory but they could not remove South skipper Steven Glicher and Marcus Shonfield who completed a four-wicket success.
South found the going much tougher in the Manchester Amateur League on Sunday. They were given a cricket master-class in a 197-run defeat against table-toppers Ashton Allstars. Ashton posted 262-8 with David Cohen, Josh Eady and Akiva Lieberman claiming two wickets apiece.
Lieberman (22) top-scored for South who capitulated for a paltry 65.
South skipper Steven Glicher said: "Ashton were just a better team. We have to move forward and learn from what happened."
There was also a heavy defeat for Manchester Maccabi. They went down by 180 runs against Olympic.
Two wickets from Steven Allweis plus a catch and a run out from captain Ray Tammam was as good as it got for Maccabi as Olympic closed on 316-6.
Maccabi were dismissed for 136 with Marc Williams (32), Wayne Doyle and teenager Rafi Dines in good touch.
Captain Ray Tammam said: "The margin of victory was a big one but we were not helped by the fact that Olympic's main batsman didn't walk early on. He went on to score 191."
