Swamibapa have ended what has been a frustrating year for them on a high note as their A team beat arch rivals Kanbis A in the finals of the 2007 NPCA Twenty-20 competition.

Having won the toss, Kanbis Captain Arvind Halai elected to bat first and lead the way with 33 for his side as Kanbis scored 108 for the loss of 7 wickets in their 20 overs. For Jadavji Jesani (25) gave the best support, but on the whole Kanbis will have been disappointed with a batting effort that struggled to dominate the experienced Swamibapa bowlers. Kenya Captain Steve Tikolo bowled tight and intelligently to capture 3 wickets for 22 runs, Lameck Onyango added 2 wickets for 17 runs and Swamibapa Captain Joseph Angara also chipped in with 1 for 20.

Swamibapa kept abreast of the run rate throughout their inning thanks mainly to an anchoring role by Tikolo who finished unbeaten on 37 and Maurice Ouma who set up the chase with 34 at the beginning of the innings. Harsh Varsani (2/14) and Ramesh Mepani (2/28) both struck twice to keep Kanbis hopes alive and the match came down to the last over with Lameck Onyango hitting the winning runs off the bowling of Rajesh Bhudia. Swamibapa’s win will give them encouragement after they faltered in the Main event due to misguided boycotts and gives them a good place to start their 2008 campaign.

Swamibapa had earlier brushed aside Stray Lions by 10 wickets in their semi final while Kanbis A had a slightly tougher time disposing of Sir Ali Muslim A by 6 wickets.

In the Plate Final, Nairobi Gymkhana won their first silverware of the season with a convincing win over surprise finalists Shree Cutchi Lewa Youth League. SCLYL batted first and were restricted to 116 for the loss of 8 wickets in their overs thanks mainly to tight spells from Rakep Patel (3/21) and the ever troublesome Darshit Shah (2/9). Snehal Bhuva (35) was the main aggressor for SCLYL receiving some back up from Naran Jagani (30).

116 was not going to be enough however against a rampant Gymkhana line up and though a couple of early wickets gave SCLYL hope, Runish Gudka (30) set up the platform for Shashank Maheshwari to see his side home with a blistering 62 not out.
Like Swamibapa, Gymkhana’s win comes after a poor season in the 50 over version of the game and restores some pride to a club who have suffered some embarrassing results in 2007.

While SCLYL reached the final through a decisive 6 wicket win over Qutbis who were rolled for a mere 55 thanks to incisive bowling from Bharat Rabadia (4/9) and Ritesh Pindolia 3/17), Gymkhana did it the hard way only beating Golden XI on the second attempt after their first semi final was tied. In the deciding match it was again Maheshwari who proved the talisman for the side with 81 not out after Hiren Varaiya (4/14) and Darshit Shah (2/25) had spun Gymkhana into a strong position by bowling out Golden for 132.

While the Twenty-20 final is the last competitive cricket for the year, there is only a brief interlude before the 45 over competition starts in January. NPCA had intended to run a 75 overs competition, but were overruled by a captains vote that overwhelmingly supported yet another shorter version competition. Perhaps it is no surprise that there is increasing concern that standards in Nairobi are dropping with so much limited overs cricket. At least with sponsorship on board the way is now clear for Cricket Kenya to launch the Zonal Championship in early 2008 which should give Kenya’s top cricketers experience at multi innings games. Unless the provinces also introduce some matches of their own however, we will be faced with a situation where teams are chosen for the multi innings Zonal games based on performances in short innings club cricket.