Saturday morning saw Tallinn United Falcons take on Tallinn Hippos and a blockbuster clash between table topping Tallinn Stallions and 2nd placed Tallinn United.
Ground 1 Tallinn United Falcons vs Tallinn Hippos
The Hippos won the toss and elected to bat first. Dave Robson combined well with Remo Raud and Marko Vaik on his way to an unbeaten 123, setting an imposing 205/3 off their 20 overs. Wickets for the Falcons were shared between Aditya Panwar, Wasif Shabbir and Ramakrishan Thakur taking one each.
The Falcons got off to a blistering start in their run chase with Rifaq Khan’s 80 off 44 balls the stand out but the Hippos fought back with the ball and a steady flow of wickets, including 2 run outs, meant the Falcons fell short finishing their 20 overs on 168/7. Dave Robson picked up 3 wickets for the Hippos, with Rony Mahmud and Richard Parkin getting 1 wicket each.
Ground 2 Tallinn Stallions vs Tallinn United
A nailbiting encounter began with United winning the toss and deciding to bat first. The Stallions picked up the wickets of both openers early before Nand Lal (54) and Murali Obili (54*) combined for a 107 run partnership. They guided United to a competitive total of 156/4. Bilal Masud was the best of the bowlers for the Stallions with 2 wickets. Ehtesham Sheikh and Saif Malik picked up a wicket each.
The Stallions chase was under pressure as wickets fell regularly with Saif Malik the only batsman to offer any resistance as he almost single handedly dragged Stallions towards the total. He found assistance from Ehtesham Sheikh with whom he combined for a 65 run partnership when the Stallions needed it most. Saif Malik hit the winning runs with a 4 off Nand Lal to complete a last over victory, scoring 92* off 68 balls. Wickets for United were shared between Vinod Kuvar, Nand Lal and Arun Prakash.
Saturday afternoon’s games saw Tallinn United Falcons backing up on Ground 1 against Tallinn Rising Stars and The Viking Stars taking on Eesti Tigers on Ground 2.
Ground 1 Tallinn United Falcons vs Tallinn Rising Stars
On Ground 1 Rising Stars won the toss and elected to bat sending out Maidul Islam and Shebin Al Din to open. 18 overs later Shebin Al Din was dismissed after a magnificent 107 from 56 balls. He had combined with Maidul Islam for a 179 run opening stand that put the Rising Stars well on top. Maidul Islam finished unbeaten on 65 as the Rising Stars posted a formidable 204/1 from 20 overs. Aditya Panwar was the only wicket taker for the Falcons.
Rifaq Khan started the chase brightly for the Falcons scoring 22 off 11 balls before he fell to Partha Kar. From that point on the wickets fell at a regular rate and the Falcons were never really likely to reach the total, finishing all out for 118 off 16.4 overs. Partha Kar, Shebin Al Din, MS Shoyaib and Saifur Rahman all finished with 2 wickets.
Ground 2 Viking Stars vs Eesti Tigers
On Ground 2 the Tigers won the toss and decided to bat first. Habib Khan got off to a flyer with 27 from 9 balls before falling LBW to Rana Rashid. Walid Khan played a measured innings of 44 off 45 balls while regular wickets fell before Sahil Chuahan (20 off 19) combined with the lower order to push the total to 146/7. The Vikings bowlers kept the pressure on to keep the total down, with hadi Raja, Rana Rashid, Abdul Raziq, Tauseef Akhtar and Sarfaraz all getting wickets.
The Vikings lost a couple of early wickets before a good partnership of 74 runs between Waqas Rashid (42 off 35) and Norman Shabbir (28 off 34) pushed them within striking distance of the win. Waqas fell with 4 overs to play leaving Rana Rashid and Sarfaraz to chase 32 runs from 23 balls. They fell agonisingly short posting 141/4 and giving the Tigers the win by 5 runs. Elias Hasan picked up 2 wickets for the Tigers, while Ashraful Shuvo and Habib Khan picked up one each.
Sunday saw two 40 over games with Tartu Wolves taking on Tallinn United and Tallinn Stallions against Eesti Tigers.
Ground 1 Tartu Wolves vs Tallinn United
Tartu won the toss and decided to bowl first on Ground 1. United went to work setting a massive total of 324/7 off their 40 overs with Arslan Amjad’s 104 from 67 balls the stand out performance. Nand Lal (58 off 40) and MB Borgaonkar (40 off 38) also played well with United compiling 5 partnerships over 30 in a very consistent display. Jazib Sawar, Shahid Mubasshar, Aaqib Ayoub and Yogesh Kumar all got wickets for Tartu.
The Wolves chase never really got going, with only 2 players reaching double figures they finished all out for 70 from 22 overs. Arun Prakash was the main destroyer for United, finishing with figures of 3/22 from his 6 overs. The rest of the wickets were shared between Ashish Rana, Ayush Ummat, MB Borgaonkar and Vibhor Tandon.
Ground 2 Tallinn Stallions vs Eesti Tigers
With only 9 players at the ground the Stallions chose to bat after winning the toss. Sajib Sharma fell early before N Mamman and Tauseef Akhtar got the innings going in the right direction with a 63 run partnership taking the score to 74/2 before Mamman was dismissed for 46 off 42. The next 6 wickets fell for 49 runs, with Habib Khan’s 5/15 off his 8 overs particularly damaging. The remaining 2 players having not shown up to the ground Stallions were forced to bring their innings to a close at 123/8.
The Tigers chase got off to a disastrous start being 30/4 after 8 overs. An 80 run 5th wicket partnership combined with 42 extras got them out of trouble as they chased down the total with 5 wickets to spare in the 29th over. Bejon Sarker finished with 55* off 77 balls to guide his team to the win. Sarfaraz Ahmad (3/18) and Ehtesham Sheikh (2/48) kept the Stallions in the game but the rest of the Stallions bowlers could not make the necessary breakthroughs to make a real contest out of what turned into a very one sided affair.
