MAL take Sunday League title

MAL wrapped up the Maccabi Sunday League title with a 41-run victory against Casual Nomads on the main square at Shenley.

On a fabulous deck, Gav Lebens won the toss and chose to bat. MAL were quickly 10-2 as first Tali Rowe and then Jamie Breslaw fell cheaply to Simon Renshaw.

A partnership of 30 between Mark Landau and Yoav Lebens steadied things a little before Landau also fell to Renshaw, for 17.

At 40-3 things looked a little precarious but an excellent and aggressive partnership between Lebens and Grant Traub took the score to 120 just past the drinks break before Richard Berman removed Traub for 33, and shortly afterwards Lebens followed him for an excellent 53 off 46 balls with eight fours and one towering straight six.

Elliot Unsdorfer and Steve Braude both reached double figures but there was a significant lower order innings from Pinty Baddiel, who made 35 not out to take MAL to a competitive total of 231.

Renshaw returned to mop up the tail, finishing with outstanding figures of 6-18 from his 7.1 overs.

Nomads response started steadily, if unspectacularly. Mark Landau and Yoav Lebens kept the pressure on and the scoring rate down, though neither could make the breakthrough. Landau finished with figures of 0-33 from his eight.

At 75-0 after 17, Nomads required rate had crept up to almost seven, though Nomads had all their wickets intact. Up stepped left-arm spinner Grant Traub, who picked up two wickets in the 18th, removing captain Richard Ferrer for 21, and Mark Aziz for a duck.

The first ball of his next over saw Samson fall LBW for a very good 46. 76-3 became 99-5 in the 27th as Michael Klinger added to the pressure with two wickets thanks to some excellent catching from Gav Lebens and Avi Gelley.

Jerome Roith was playing well, but there was far too much for him to do - he scored 57 but the fact that he only managed two boundaries is testament to the good field placements that MAL had in place, and the sheer athleticism of Jamie Breslaw on the midwicket boundary.

Gelley and Lebens combined as the '5th' bowler, and both bowled well, taking the pace off the ball ath the end of the innings and picking up fourwickets between them, as Nomads looked to throw the bat in vain. Roith was eighth man out with the score on 172 and with him went any residual hope that Nomads might have had.

The final wicket fell in the 38th over, and sparked scenes of some celebration, as MAL picked up their 2nd consecutive title.

MAL 231 (39.1 overs) Y Lebens 53, Baddiel 35*, Traub 33, Renshaw 6-18
Casual Nomads 190 (37.2 overs) Roithe 57, Traub 3-9, G Lebens 2-20, Gelley 2-34, Klinger 2-43

CRICKET SCOREBOARD

Northern Jewish Cricket Cup Final
Manchester Maccabi 204-9
Bury & Whitefield 49
Manchester won by 155 runs

Friendly
Belmont & Edgware 187-8
North Harrow - 188-4
North Harrow won by 6 wickets