On Saturday morning Tallinn Hippos played Viking Stars while on Ground 2 Tallinn Stallions took on Tallinn Rising Stars.
Ground 1 Viking Stars vs Tallinn Hippos
The Hippos won the toss and decided to bat first. They got off to a decent start with Mart Tammoja hitting 20 off 17 at the top of the order. From that point on wickets fell regularly and the Hippos needed a late fightback from Kalle Vislapuu (28) and Richard Parkin (17) to push the score to a respectable 125 off their 20 overs. Tauseef Akhtar took 2 wickets for the Vikings.
The Vikings started the chase poorly, losing 2 wickets early before Rana Rashid (20) and Norman Shabbir (40) set them back on track. A solid 23 from Toqeer Awan saw the Vikings home with an over to spare. Wickets were shared amongst the Hippos bowlers, with 13 year old Viktoria Frey picking up her first EPL wicket on debut.
Ground 2 Tallinn Stallions vs Tallinn Rising Stars
Stallions won the toss and elected to bowl. The Rising Stars lost some wickets early and were in some trouble before their middle order brought them back into the contest. Mahabubul Miraz (17), Saifur Rahman (31), Muhammad Zisan (20) and Mamun Al Mannan (14) all contributed to valuable partnerships and pushed the total to 152/8 off their 20 overs. JQ Qazi and N Mannan both got 2 wickets for the Stallions.
The chase started brightly with Bilal Masud scoring 41 off 34 balls to take the score to 79/2 in the 12th over. The Stallions then lost 4 wickets for just 9 runs and when Saif Malik fell for 21 the game was all but over. 4 run outs for the Rising Stars capped an excellent display with Mahabubul Miraz and Mamun Al Mannan getting 2 wickets each.
Saturday afternoon’s games saw Tallinn United Falcons on Ground 1 against Viking Stars and Tallinn United taking on Eesti Tigers on Ground 2.
Ground 1 Tallinn United Falcons vs Viking Stars
The Falcons won the toss and elected to bat. A consistent performance from most of the Falcons middle order saw them post 146/4 from 20 overs. 5 of the 6 batsmen for the Falcons reached double figures with Rifaq Khan and Zahaan Khan both top scoring with 29 runs.
In response the Vikings lost wickets consistently throughout the chase with only Norman Shabbir (38) and Khurram Abbas (11) reaching double figures. They were eventually all out for 105 with Anurag Poudel claiming match best figures of 3/13.
Ground 2 Tallinn United vs Eesti Tigers
Eesti Tigers won the toss and sent United in but were quickly on the back foot. Ayush Ummat (34), Rohit Bhadoria (40) and Arslan Amjad (43) all scored freely to take United to an imposing 174/8 off 20 overs. Ashraful Shuvo and Habib Khan each picked up 2 wickets for the Tigers.
Habib Khan (30) and Hafizul Tamal (55) got the Tigers off to a great start but they lost their last 6 wickets for just 25 runs to fall 27 runs short of the total. Ayush Ummat picked up 2 wickets for United.
Sunday saw two 40 over games with Eesti Tigers and Tallinn Hippos on Ground 1 and Tartu Wolves against Tallinn Rising Stars on Ground 2.
Ground 1 Eesti Tigers vs Tallinn Hippos
Tallinn Hippos won the toss and elected to bat. Rana Rahman got the Hippos off to a great start scoring 56 off 57 balls but wickets consistently fell at the other end to leave the Hippos bowled out for just 118 off 21.4 overs. Bejon Sarker was the best of the Tigers bowlers with figures of 3/27 from 7 overs.
Habib Khan (74) and Bejon Sarker (33) made short work of the chase, passing the Hippos total in just 12.3 overs for a massive victory.
Ground 2 Tartu Wolves vs Tallinn Rising Stars
Rising Stars won the toss and decided to bat but were immediately in trouble losing both openers cheaply. Maidul Islam (23) combined with Partha Kar (17) to get the innings back on track before a middle order collapse saw the Rising Stars lose 5 wickets for just 10 runs to be 79/2 from just 12.2 overs. Up stepped Saifur Rahman (48) and Ehsanur Rahman (32), their 80 run partnership guiding the team out of trouble and allowing them to post a competitive score of 190 as they were bowled out in 33.2 overs. Muhammad Usman was the main destroyer for Tartu with 5/39 from his 8 overs, Asif Satter also picking up 3 wickets.
Tartu battled towards the Rising Stars total but lost wickets consistently to be all out for 118 from 27.3 overs. Ali Raza was the best of the Tartu batsmen, scoring 35 from 33 balls. Maidul Islam took 3 wickets for the Rising Stars while Nazmul Haque took 2.
