In a game of high tension, Be'er Sheva beat Ra'anana in an U15 League game played at a very hot and humid Hadar Yosef stadium on Sunday.

Michael Muchie, captaining Be'er Sheva for the first time, won the toss and elected to bat on the newly laid Flicx cricket pitch (a new cricketing surface, recently arrived in Israel, that provides for even bounce and better quality cricket). Be'er Sheva were soon in trouble as a superb opening spell of bowling by Reuven Bergman removed key batsmen Bar Ilya for 8. Amitai Maliker followed soon after for 3, brilliantly run out by Darren Miller.

These two wickets brought inform batsmen Oren Chinulkar and captain Muchie together. The two batted well against some tight Ra'anana bowling, before Muchie was adjudged LBW to a very quick delivery from Dani Hotz. Highly rated Savania Naguakar soon joined his captain back in the dressing room after a mix up with Chinchulkar allowed Eyal Matz to pounce and smartly run him out.

Ronen Wasker and Levi Penkar both fell for 5 and with wickets and overs running out, Chinulkar sacrificed his wicket for the team and fell for a very steady 31. Beer Sheva did well to bat out their allotted 35 overs and Ra'anana, captained very well by Gal Matz, had done a good job in restricting the visitors to 109 for 8, due predominantly to excellent bowling by Bergman (3-17), Hotz (2-15) and Eyal Matz (1-24).

The Ra'anana run chase began badly as Eyal Matz was bowled for 2 by Penkar with the 5th ball of the innings. Ben Silver was joined by captain Gal Matz and the two of them put on 51 for the 2nd wicket before a fantastic delivery by Muchie removed Matz for a well played 19. Muchie had bowled some very good deliveries to Matz and the combination of a bouncer followed up by a yorker was enough to have Matz's off stump out the ground.

Danny Hotz joined the steady Silver at the wicket and both were looking good. Some inspired captaincy by Muchie, who introduced leg spinner Chinulkar into the attack, had both batsmen playing and missing more than the Ra'anana supporters would have hoped for. Silver played back to a Chinulkar delivery and was out LBW for a good 22. Darren Miller lasted 3 balls, made the same mistake as Silver and was adjudged LBW for 0. When Wasker trapped Hotz LBW for 15, Ra'anana were 71/5 and Be'er Sheva could smell victory.

A fantastic partnership by Bergman and Gabi Schachat took the score from 71 to 98 before Bergman, having carried his good form with the ball to score an aggresive 20, was bowled by Muchie. Craig Levitt was next man out for 2 and with 14 runs required in 5 overs with 4 wickets in hand, the game was wide open.

Wasker came back into the attack and his deadly legspin removed Shachat for a solid 12, and 2 overs later Yoni Miller was bowled by Wasker for 1. Shamir hit some hefty blows but his 3 was not enough, as he went for a big shot and was caught, leaving Rafi Schachat on the other end stranded without scoring; Beersheva winning by 5 runs.

© Israel Cricket Association