XI Stars to meet Nomads in PT20 Final

Geneva XI stars booked a place in the finals against Nomads CC after beating Bern CC in a high scoring thriller.

The stars were put into bat by Bern after winning the toss. Raja Hafeez immediately developed a liking for the Bern bowling and hit lustily all around the ground to score 83 runs. Lalit Dubey continued with his golden form with the bat and scored 66 runs hitting all the bowlers at will. The final punch was delivered by Vipin who is popularly known as "Puppo Gayle" by his team mates as he scored 41 runs from 19 balls. The stars reached a healthy total of 231 runs in their 20 overs.
The Berne reply was equal to the task as they started briskly and kept up with the run rate. The first blood was however drawn by Ali Saleem who bowled the Berne captain with a beauty. Amandeep Singh then applied the brakes in the middle overs by bowling tightly which created panic and then all the stars bowlers Asad Shah, Himank Anand and Jassi bowled the opposition out for 191 runs.

The stars will now face Nomads CC in the finals on the 2nd of October.

On what is now famously known as Graveyard for bowlers in Switzerland (Onex, Geneva), Geneva XI Stars hosted Berne CC in the semi-final of the Pickwick Cup T20 championship. Knowing the history of ground where run flow is hard to control, Berne CC won the toss and put the XI Stars in to bat.
XI Stars openers Raja Hafeez and Houmayun Sherzai gave the Stars a solid start, racing to a 50 run opening partnership. The fall of the first wicket brought in form Lalit Kumar Dubey to the crease and with Raja hitting theball clearly from the other end, the two of them combined for a superb and aggressive 118 run 2nd wicket partnership. The runs flowed like a river in floods and at 170-2 after 14.5 overs Raja Hafeez was finally dismissed for a brilliant 83 off just 45 deliveries. Lalit carried on with his consistency with the bat and scored another 50, and finished with 66 off 37 balls. The ever destructive Vipin Paviithran also contributed with a whirlwind knock of 41 from just 19 balls providing the final touches to the innings and in the process taking him to the top of the list for the run scorers in this year's Pickwick Cup with 247 runs from 6 innings to his name. The XI Stars ended up with a massive 231 runs on the board for the loss of 4 wickets from their 20 overs.
The Berne openers made their intentions clear from the very first ball of the chase with a six, giving a clear message that they would not go down without a fight. Indeed Tissa de Zoysa (31 from 17 balls), Pradeep (39 from 21 balls) and AseemDhawan, who was the pick of the batsmen from the Berne team (63 from 40 balls), played tremendously well to put pressure on the XI Stars' bowlers and gave some hope to the Berne team. The XI Stars' bowlers held their nerve though and succesfully defended the target, restricting Berne CC to 191 all out, winning by a margin of 40 runs. For the XI Stars Asad Ali shah,Ali Saleem and Himank shared 3 wickets each, with Jasbir Singh taking the other wicket to fall. Amandeep Singh also bowled a very economical spell in his 3 overs giving only 18 runs,and making it difficult for Berne cc to get near to the target, in a high scoring game.

Geneva XI Stars will now face Nomads Cricket Club in the final of the Pickwick Cup T20 on the 2nd of October. In the meanwhile they have a road trip to Prague to compete in the 3rd Pepsi cup and when they are back will face Nomads CC in the big CSPL semi finals at Onex.