Sunday 11th April 2021 will go as a famous date in the history of Leckendurster cricket after it saw the debut of the nation's first ever professional competition - The National State T20 Championship (Der Nationale Staatsmeisterschaft).
The eagerly anticipated tournament kicked off with three fixtures - the first matchday of a round-robin format that will see each of the six competing State representative teams face off in home and away fixtures
Curzrak Cyclones
Atlingshire Stampede
Daimlinger Dragons
Match Day 1 Results
Cyclones vs Wolves - Held the Jupiter Recreation Ground. Cruzrak won the toss and elected to bat first.
Cylcones - 160/8 (20 overs)
Wolves - 132/6 (20 overs)
Cruzrak Cyclones win by 28 runs
Cyclones Innings
Wolves Innings
Curzrak Cyclones win by 28 runs
It was an imperious beginning to their State's history for the Curzrak Cyclones on their home ground at the Jupiter Recreation Ground as they strolled to a comfortable victory off the back of some brisk mid-order hitting from Richie Le Blanc and a crafty performance from the bowling unit.
The Wolves may look back and regret the good start they made as they restricted the Cyclones to just 37-3 inside the first powerplay, but Collins and Le Blanc rallied and built a stand of 64 to take the score to 101/4 with 6.3 overs left in their innings. Collins was just starting to push up through the gears when he smacked a half-volley straight back to part-time seamer Brian Woods who managed to hold on to a brilliant instinctive return catch. From there Roger Le Blanc led the charge to register a blistering 58 before being toppled by an intelligent slower ball from left arm pacer Rob Dollington, with value chip-in efforts from Woods and Wasserbruck at the death.
The Wolves were then faced with an eminently gettable target of 161 to chase under clear skies but were expertly tested by the discipline and accuracy of the Cyclones bowling attack. Bustling right arm quick bowler Ollie Williams led the line and never allowed the Willersbrook batsmen to establish themselves, beating the outside edge seemingly at will and being fairly rewarded with the scalps of opener Nick Jenkins and middle order batsman Pete Davis from his four overs. It really was a complete effort from the Cyclones, with five of the six used bowlers able to contribute and chip in with wickets - backed up by a tidy fielding effort to constantly keep the Wolves from really taking the game to Cruzrak. Captain Phil Woods and lower-order all-rounder Walter-Mikel Schwarz both managed to hang around and offer some resistance but both were kept under wraps and proved unable to keep up with the target run rate.
Stampede vs Rockets - Held at Jefferson's Field Stadium, Atlingshire won the toss and elected to field.
Rockets - 132/7 (20 overs)
Stampede 134/6 (16.4 overs)
Atlingshire Stampede win by 4 wickets
Rockets Innings
Stampede Innings
Atlingshire lived up to their franchise moniker by chasing down their target of 133 at a canter, after a first innings bowling display which never allowed the Rockets to fire. New ball duo of Patrick Munze and Freddie Tymonds led the attack and both looked irrestiable from ball one, quite literally in the case of Tymonds who began his career with a vicious in-dipping yorker to trap Rockets opener Vince Dilahunty plumb in front.
To their credit, Saxurecht started their defence positively through the powerplay with the Stampede top three only offering 27 runs from their combined 29 deliveries but the day was quickly snatched away from them by the explosive middle order trio of Simon Grove, Wes Arthurton and Ed Wells with particular distain being dolled out for the part time off-breaks of Liam Marks. While Wells' firework show came to a premature end when he top edged an audious hook through to gloveman Rigobert De Haller, it did allow a pleasing moment for Stampede skipper Rico Berlz to seal his side's first ever victiory by crunching a low full toss from medium pacer Eric Schneiderhan through cover point for an emphatetic walk-off boundary.
Dragons vs Falcons - Held President's Park, Falcons won the toss and elected to bat first.
Falcons - 146/6 (20 overs)
Dragons - 143/5 (20 overs)
Gesington Falcons win by 3 runs.
Falcons Innings
Dragons Innings
The most competitive fixture from Match Day 1 was on display at Daimlinger's President's Park ground, where the Dragons' run chase ran out of steam as the Falcons swooped into a claim victory off the final ball.
Geshington won the toss and chose to bat first on a cold, blustry day and got off to a rate of knots through the opening bats of Rory Barkley and Jacques Sestler. The Dragons were able to battle back through the middle overs, keeping the entirity of Geshington's top order to a strike rate of 100.00 or less. All-rounder Grant McRedy wrestled the momentum back in to the Falcons' favour with a lively cameo to help his side to a respectable total.
Daimlinger will have no doubt gone into the innings change pleased with their work in the field but it must have been a rousing team-talk from Falcons head coach C.J Pasetti because his boys were truly tenacious in defence of their scores. Seamers Scott Knox and Jake Reed expertly diagnosed the weaknesses of the Dragon's batsmen and relentless in how they were exposed. Skipper Billy Münster forced his name into his side's record books by registering their first ever half century knock in the competition, but it was an innings that is likely to ignite fierce debate amongst the Daimlinger supports. The optimistic take would be that it was an anchoring role that provided a backbone for the rest of the Dragon's could have built around, the more negative review would be to call it a forgetable and meandering innings that never really got out second gear and allowed the Falcons to build scoreboard pressure. Whichever way you look at it, it came down to Darnell Sanders needing 13 from the last 4 balls of Eddy Le Kloos' leg-spin. Ball 1 was a googly which spun back sharply and caught the under-edge of Sander's bat and squirted away to fine leg for a scampered 2. Sanders founded his rhythm on Ball 2, advancing down the wicket and hammering a one-bounce four over cover point. Ball 3 was a low full toss which was duly crunched past mid-on and the Dragons were looking good for victory, but credit must go to Le Kloos for rising to the occassion and delivering an expertly placed leg-stump yorker. All Sanders could manage was to jam the bat down and wicket-keeper Keith Helmbrech flung himself on the loose ball and ice the game.
Week 1 Standing
Group A Played Won Lost Tie Points N/RR
Atlingshire Stampede 1 1 0 0 6 1.57
Cuzrak Cyclones 1 1 0 0 6 1.4
Geshington Falcons 1 1 0 0 6 0.15
Willersbroke Wolves 1 0 1 0 0 -1.4
Daimlinger Dragons 1 0 1 0 0 -0.15
Saxurecht Rockets 1 0 1 0 0 -1.57