Cricket set for more summer sizzle
The weather has played a role, as is usually the case at this time of year.
The local T20 cricket competitions have been going on with much excitement since October and the teams now have a deserved break over the festive season.
There are two divisions with nine teams in each. This season has seen the most number of teams competing, showing that there has been a massive increase in interest in cricket, not only at league level, but in the younger age groups as well.
Last year’s finalists, Legends, lead the way in Division 1 with a perfect seven out of seven wins thus far. They are looking immensely strong and are in ominous form for the playoff rounds still to come.
Newcomers to Division 1, Port Edward Dolphins, are providing stiff competition and are enjoying a commendable debut season, currently in second spot on the table.
Rain has unfortunately had its say with two weekends of the fixture list being rained out and the points shared.
The vagaries of the fixture list means that three of the pre-season favourites, namely Spartans, Knockouts and PSCC, lie third, fourth and fifth respectively.
Despite this, in this year’s iteration of the league, places one and two advance straight to the semis with three to six competing in the quarters, so they are definitely still in the running.
Another new comer, Sheppie Lions, holds onto the final qualification spot but have completed their round robin fixtures and it will be interesting to see if Bombay will manage to pip them come the final game.
In Division 2, Henns Vikings have been runaway leaders for the entire season with six wins and points shared because of a rained out fixture.
Vikings cannot be caught and have won the league phase of Division 2 with one game remaining.
There is a bit of a queue forming to secure second place, which is of extra interest as that guarantees promotion into Division 1.
Going into the last game of the league phase, any one of Super Giants, Crusaders or Wolfpack could snatch that second place from the others.
Among the others, each have managed to score memorable victories with scores approaching 200 a regular occurrence.
As with Division 1, places one and two go into the semis with places three to six qualifying for the playoffs.
So, going into final round of fixtures there is still much to play for.
Individually, there have been three century makers with all three coming in Division 2 – Marko Sukkels from Henns Vikings, Mikyle Bartle from Henns Vikings and Rashied Gopaul from Super Giants.
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