The final weekend of the sixty-ball shootout (T10) is here and theoretically, all the four teams stand a chance to win the championship. Hammers are leading the table with 6 points with one game to go, Puffins and Vikings are at 4 points with two games to go and Volcanos are also at 4 points with one match to play. Hammers´ superior net run-rate makes them most favourite for the title, especially if they can defeat Vikings in the final game this Sunday. Vikings and Puffins also stand a good chance if they can win their remaining two matches with favourable net run-rate. Volcanos´ chances are relatively slim- they must beat Puffins with a significantly superior run-rate difference and then the last two games between Puffins and Vikings, and Hammers and Vikings should play out in a way that all four teams end up with 6 points and the other three teams have lower net run-rates than Volcanos.
Hammers started their campaign strongly with a 53 runs win over Vikings, thanks to a speedy opening partnership from Chamley Fernando (42 of 26) and Tajder Khan (33 of 23), and fireworks from Dushan Bandara (29 of 8) at the end. Then they beat Kopavogur by chasing down 97 in 8 overs, again led by Fernando´s 20-ball 40 and Bandara´s 14-ball 30. Hammers capped off the second Sunday with a close win against Volcanos after restricting them to 72. However, their performance on third Sunday was subpar, first losing against Volcanos by 29 runs and then they fell two runs short of the target (82) against Puffins.
Reykjavik Vikings continued their feeble form in the first match against Hammers, extending their losing streak to 7 matches. However, Derick Deonarain started hitting the ball with the familiar elegance from the next match and Vikings were back on track. Deonarain´s 30 of 18 helped Vikings to chase down 87 in 8 overs against Puffins and he then showed his full repertoire against Volcanos, hitting a 24-ball 72 with 5 boundaries and 7 sixes and chasing down 97 in 6 overs. However, Derick missed the next game against Volcanos and Vikings fell 7 runs short of a mere 66.
Kopavogur Puffins also lost their first match against Vikings and then bounced back with a 24 runs win against Volcanos. M Kareem carried his bat through, scoring a 50 (32 balls) and some late hitting from Jega Subramaniyam (19 of 11) took Puffins to 99 in 10 overs, which they defended very easily. Next Sunday they lost against Hammers, despite scoring 97 (Kareem 20 of 14 and Subramaniyam 20 of 13) but took the revenge on the following Sunday by beating them by 1 run. This time, Kareem´s 18-ball 24 and Hari Singh´s 27 ball 35 carried Puffins to 81 and then Kareem (9/2 in 2 overs) defended 6 runs in the last over halting Hammers 2 runs short of the target.
Volcanos had a disastrous start of the tournament, losing their first three matches and they were on the verge of losing the fourth as well after scoring only 66 against Vikings. However, a strong bowling performance, led by Nikhil Nekram´s 8/3 in 2 overs and Kathir Narayanan´s 1/0 in 2 overs, helped them to revive as Vikings could score only 59 in 10 overs. In the next match, Volcanos showed a strong batting performance, thanks to 25-ball 61 by Avik Ghosh and 21-ball 32 by Mohith Kotian, and scored 123 in 10 overs, which they defended very easily, despite some late hitting from Hammers.
The live telecast of all the matches will be available on the ICA YouTube channel
Points table
