IRIS SMART TECHNOLOGIES ABUJA CRICKET LEAGUE GROUP STAGES END AS CCA PANTHERS EMERGE FINALIST ALONG WITH ALREADY QUALIFIED APCC


IRIS SMART TECHNOLOGIES ABUJA CRICKET LEAGUE GROUP STAGES END AS CCA PANTHERS EMERGE FINALIST ALONG WITH ALREADY QUALIFIED APCC

By Michael Egiethua in Abuja

The CCA Panthers in a group photograph just before their brake or make match against the Aso Rock CC.
The Iris Smart Technologies Abuja Cricket league ended the group stages of the league this past Sunday with the last two games of Day 6 (Week 6) played at the CCA Oval, National Stadium, Package B Abuja on Sunday 14/4/2019.

The permutations were very rife the week before, as to who amongst the trio of Abuja Indians Cricket Club (AICC), Cricket Club Abuja Panthers (CCAP) and Aso Rock Cricket Club (ARCC) would join the already qualified Abuja Pakistanis Cricket Club in the finals of the very intensive and highly contested League. Of all the scenarios, the one that came to play was the “if AICC lose against the APCC and the CCAP wins against the ARCC the CCAP will qualify for the final match”.

So it was that in the first game of the day being the eleventh game of the league. The Abuja Pakistanis Cricket Club (APCC) were up against the Abuja Indians Cricket Club (AICC) in a game that was just a mere formality for the APCC but a must win for the AICC. The AICC won the toss and chose to put the APCC in to bat. The APCC played 136 runs in 20 overs for the loss of 8 wickets, Mohammad Hashim played 33 runs off 20 balls hitting a series total runs of 165 in six matches. In the second innings the AICC came to chase 136 runs and would win only if they played 137 runs in 20 overs. That did not happen as they were check mated by the bowling and tight fielding of the APCC. At the end of the game, the AICC were only able to score 113 runs in 20 overs for the loss of 7 wickets. The Abuja Pakistanis Cricket Club won the game by 23 runs.

The major cracker of the day was the tension soaked match between the ARCC and the CCAP. Both teams needed to win the game to qualify for the final game and so the fireworks began from the delivery of the first ball at approximately 1:30 pm. In the match which was the 12th game of the league, ARCC won the toss and elected to bat first with the dream of winning the CCAP and subsequently book a spot in the finals.

The ARCC batted 130 runs in 20 overs for the loss of 7 wickets. The opening combination of Jamal Okechukwu and Gbenga Ariyo saw Jamal out in 3.1 overs with the scoreboard at 20 runs. Ehis Uadiale came in and his combination with Gbenga Ariyo pushed the runs to 77 at 8.1 overs when Ehis lost his wicket. Musa Bodie was not at his best compared to his previous performances as he was only able to put in 2 runs off 7 balls. Gbenga Ariyo pushed his team to 94 runs till he lost his wicket in the 16th over, scoring a personal 36 runs off 41 balls. At the end of 20 overs the ARCC scored 130 runs for the loss of 7 wickets.

The second innings saw the CCAP coming in to chase 130 and needed 131 runs to win. The two opening batsmen, Mr. Regi George and Aadil Bhatel knew exactly what was needed to win and they went straight to work. While keeping their wickets they started to score slowly and gradually building up the tempo of the game by opening up to the boundaries. Their excellent combination took a lot of pressure off the middle order batsmen. Aadil scored 37 runs of 46 balls and Regi Gorge scored 36 runs off 32 balls. Also Pankaj Thiara scored 17 runs of 14 balls and Ayo Ejegi scored 6 runs of 10 balls. The surprise discovery of the match was Nafees Khan who had been the 12th man. At a critical moment when runs were needed he lived up to the billing and took the CCA Panthers to victory in his partnership with Michael Egiethua. He scored 18 runs off 10 balls and that was enough to win the game for his team. At 19 overs the CCAP scored 132 runs for the loss of 5 wickets, thus winning the game by 5 wickets

In the game between AICC and APCC, Mohammad Hashim was player of the Match; Abhay Singh was Player of the Match in the game between the CCAP and ARCC. Both were presented with Five Thousand Naira each by Iris Smart Technologies as well as 25 kg bag of Rice each by Olam Rice.
All is now set for the finals of the Iris Smart Technologies Abuja Cricket League, 2019 being the first of its kind in the FCT. CCAP will be locking horns with unbeaten APCC on Sunday April 28th 2019 at the CCA grounds, National Stadium Package B, Abuja. There will be exciting Prizes to be won as follows; Winner will go home with a Cash Prize of N200, 000, Runner Up Team will get N100,000, Best Player of the League will get N50,000, Best Batsman of the League gets N25,000, Best Bowler of the League gets N25,000,Best Fielder gets N25,000, Man of the Final Math gets N20,000, Best Batsman of Final Match gets N10,000, Best Bowler gets N10,000 and Best Emerging Player gets N5,000 from Iris Smart Technologies. Also the best Player, Best Batsman, Best Bowler, Best Fielder of League and Man of the Final Match would get 50 kg bag of Rice respectively from Olam Rice.

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