Tel Aviv began the defence of their league title with a fairly comfortable win over Netanya in a Division 1 game played on Friday at Hadar Yosef. Having won the toss and elected to bat, Netanya lost 2 early wickets before David Silver and Rafi Zauer added 80 for the 3rd wicket. Although Zauer was out for 24, Silver continued what was a tenacious innings, highlighted by some glorious cover drives, particularly early on in his knock, and some powerful straight hitting against the spinners, as wickets tumbled all around him. Herschel Gutman (4 for 11 in 8 overs) ripped out the Netanya middle order, with Silver eventually last man out for 87, having helped Netanya reach 178.

The Tel Aviv reply began positively, with Amir Mizroch (20) and Steve Leigh (24) adding 55 for the first wicket. Steven Shein produced an excellent spell of spin bowling to put a break on the Tel Aviv scoring rate, but the Netanya attack was unable to main the pressure, and Tel Aviv eased towards their target with 5 wickets and 17 balls to spare. Gutman completed a quality all-round performance by finishing unbeaten on 50, with Shein finishing with figures of 3 for 19 in his 8 overs.

The match played on Saturday in Be'er Sheva between Be'er Sheva 'A' and Neve Yonatan followed an almost identical pattern to that between Netanya and Tel Aviv. Neve Yonatan, boosted by 40 from Benzie Kahemkar, managed to score 161, but with the Be'er Sheva wicket being condusive to batting, and the outfield hard and fast, this total was never going to be enough. Pingler Daniel (44) top scored for the home side, who completed their victory with 5 wickets and 3 overs to spare.

The remaining matches in the opening round of Division 1, Lions Lod v Ashdod and Ramle v Young Ashdod, both scheduled for Hadar Yosef, were abandoned without a ball having been bowled following morning showers in Tel Aviv. The fixtures will be rescheduled for later in the season.

© ISR