Wickham beats Lions in last Twenty20 round before finals

Round 7 of the West Pilbara Cricket Association Twenty20 competition was held at the weekend.

In the first game of the round, Wickham Wallabies hosted the Baynton Lions in Wickham.

Wickham won the toss and elected to bat first.

Scott Atkinson got Wickham off to a flyer but got retired due to a wrist injury on 18.

Daniel Carse scored 39 runs and Brayden Reynolds scored 28 to get Wickham put a respectable total of 125.

In response, Lions lost their opener, Anil Sharma, early but Lokendra Ranawat (19 runs) and Vipan Rajput (22 runs) kept Lions in the hunt of the chase.

Some superb bowling by Michael Bunting (1/14 of 4 overs) and Daniel Carse (1/20 of 4 overs) kept the Lions in check and they finished with 95/6 in 20 overs.

In the second game, Rec Club hosted Dampier Taverners in a game that saw the Taverners looking to secure top spot in their group and a home semi-final.

The home side won the toss and batted first, but two early wickets to Adrian D’Zero (2/17) put them on the back foot early.

A strong partnership between Rod Jamieson and Muhammad Uzair steadied the Rec Club and had them headed for a solid total until Jamieson was dismissed for 52.

The Taverners continued to take regular wickets from there with Alex Fitzmaurice the best of the bowlers with 2/14.

Uzair was out for 25 in the last over as Rec Club finished at 6/130.

The run chase was all one-way traffic with teenage stars James O’Brien (41 off 29 balls) and Leroy McCawley (41 off 34 balls) leading the way.

Uzair backed up his batting efforts, taking 4/22 with the ball, but had little support from his teammates as the Taverners cruised to 5/131 in 16 overs to record their first Twenty20 win for the season.

In the last game, Karratha Kats defeated Peg’s Creek Crabs.

Kats won the toss and scored 155 with the help of an unbeaten half-century from Cameron Nowotny (57 runs) and Tom Webster (36 runs).

In response, the Crabs got rolled for 66 runs.

Brendan Blizzard took 5/17 in his 4 overs.

The results mean Rec Club will travel to face an undefeated Wickham in a semifinal this week, while the Karratha Kats will host the Baynton Lions in the other semifinal.