Held at the Alan Cooke Ground (ACG) in Thalang, it would be the experienced Penguins who would add further to their already illustrious history, clinching the title with a 19-run victory.
A rain-reduced 25-over match saw the Penguins’ openers Simon Wetherell (19) and Pelham Myburgh (38) establish a solid 40-run partnership before off-spinner Ashton Dicks removed the former in the 7th over. The leagues’ top-scorer Myburgh continued to add to his tally before Adam Victor produced an almost unplayable delivery to remove the Namibian on the stroke of drinks.
Craig Morgan (12) looked to increase the run-rate post-drinks before a well executed slower ball from Camdon Dicks removed the dangerous left-hander in the 17th over.
With fewer than 10 overs remaining and his team’s century now brought up, captain Jagsir Brar added a snappy run-a-ball 12 before he became Victor’s second scalp of the day, while Andy Langston’s (25) stubborn resistance was finally ended by Peter Burges as the score read 125/5 heading into the final five overs.
Some tight death-over bowling from Burges and Cam ensured the trio of Abhishek Sundar (11) Curt Livermore (13*) and Ajay Sampige (3*) could only muster a further 28 runs as the Penguins ended their innings with a below-par, yet defendable, 153 from 25 overs.
As play resumed Myburgh removed run scoring rival Ashton in just the second over of the innings. Any thoughts of an easy victory for the Penguins were swiftly quashed however, as Ben Simpson (37) and Andrew McMillan (28) punished some ordinary fielding as the pair found the boundary with regularity. With almost half the runs required already scored, Langston capitalised on a mix-up in the middle when running out Cherng Talay skipper Mcmillan in the 9th over to provide the much-needed breakthrough.
Spurred on by the arrival of stalwart Anthony Van Blerk, the Penguins’ fortunes continued to improve as Brar cleaned up Cam (6) in the 10th over before Langston struck twice the very next over to reduce the Tsunamis to 90/5, still 64 runs short of the target.
Just a handful of runs were added before Langston continued his match-defining spell with a double wicket-maiden in the 12th over. Victor (13) added some much-needed resistance before a smart Sajal Gaur run-out brought his side within one wicket of victory.
With the run-rate required still a manageable 5 runs per-over, Burges (12*) and Josh Linthorne (12) looked to edge their side closer to victory with a solid 25-run stand before Myburgh removed the latter in the 23rd over, thus sealing both the match and league honours for his side.
In the post game presentations Langston was clear man-of-the-match for his decisive spell of 4-29 from 5 overs.
The league’s best bowler award went to Burges for his combined 10 wicket-haul over the course of the league whilst Brar and KCC’s Imtiyaz Mushtaq both finished on 8 wickets apiece.
Myburgh claimed a well-earned double in both leading run scorer and league MVP awards in marginally edging out Ashton in both categories.
With the current pitch being replaced by a brand new concrete astro wicket, no cricket will be played at ACG until the highly anticipated Hua Hin sixes which takes place for a whole week starting on the June 29.