Palmy Super Kings batsman Gurprect Singh looks to send the pink ball to the boundary in his team's opening game of the 2018 Whanganui IPL at Victoria Park on Saturday.
Palmy Super Kings batsman Gurprect Singh looks to send the pink ball to the boundary in his team's opening game of the 2018 Whanganui IPL at Victoria Park on Saturday.
Deciding the winner of the 2nd annual Sports Emporium Cricket Whanganui IPL Twenty20 came down to the final over of the last game as Wellington Fateh got revenge for 2017 with an 11-run win over the Gujarat Lions.
The Lions from Patea had beaten the Petone-based Fateh in last year'sfinal at Victoria Park, and both teams won through to yesterday afternoon's Cup playoff again with three straight wins in the six-team tournament.
Gujarat especially looked dominant as after a competitive opening game with Palmy Super Kings, beating them by 16 runs, they made the tournament's biggest score of 188-7 in defeating the Wellington Sikhs by 84 runs, before bowling home team the Wicket Warriors Whanganui out for 33 on the way to a quick nine-wicket win.
Fateh beat Eastern Suburbs in the opening round, then the Wicket Warriors by nine wickets and Super Kings by seven wickets, bowling them out in double figures.
In the final, Fateh were dismissed off the last ball after making 118, and then despite some strong fight in the tail, the Lions were bowled out off the first ball of the 20th over for 107.
It was not a good weekend for the Wicket Warriors, who as well as the nine wicket losses to the two finalists, were beaten by 95 runs in their first game with the Wellington Sikhs, and lost their last match to the Super Kings by seven wickets, after never reaching 100 runs in an innings.
Lions batsman Kirit Patel was the top runscorer for the tournament with 107 from three games, including one of the two 50's in the tournament, while Fateh's Mannu Sanwal was the leading bowler with 12 dismissals in four games, including the only five-for which he took in the final.
