South rules in national cricket event
Southern Region XI cricket team wrapped up the 2014 season in style on Sunday when they thrashed Central Region XI by 118 runs during the National 50-Over Championship finals at the Blantyre Sports Club (BSC).
The South team, which comprised the best cricketers in the region, batted first to score 265 runs all out in 49.1-overs, but the centre failed to chase down the scores as they were bowled out for 147 in the 36th over.
The Southern Region outfit owed its victory to the impressive display of skills by Sailesh Jeena, Arjun Kalaria and Gift Kansonkho, who made individual contributions of 53 runs, 52 runs and 39 runs respectively. Donnex Kansonkho and Deepak Kanchan also had a hand in the victory as they claimed three wickets each.
Centre’s Mustapha and Shaunuk Ganguly tried their best to delay South’s predictable advantage with personal effort of 43 and 39 runs, respectively but their attempts proved too little to change the overall outcome of the encounter.
“We played some outstanding cricket today. We completely outplayed our opponents,” said Gift Kansonkho after the match. “We were excellent in all three facets, batting, bowling and fielding and we are happy to wind up the season with such a wonderful triumph.”
The previous day, BSC hosted the 20-overs National Boys Secondary School championships which saw Cricket Academy B beating Bishop Mackenzie by four wickets in the finals.
Mackenzie made 69 runs all out in 13 overs, but Cricket Academy B chased down the total with 70 runs in just 10 overs. Alick Kansonkho took four wickets while Tyle House made 27 runs for the academy.
