Cricket: Indians beat heavyweights to lift title

Bay of Plenty Indians batter Lukesh Kumar playing against the Taupo Wanderers in the T20 final on Saturday. Photo / Ben Fraser

The Bay of Plenty Indians have claimed the T20 title in the Rotorua/Taupo senior reserve grade, seeing off two heavyweights of the competition.

The Indians (Rotorua) reserve team defeated defending champions Geyser City in the last round robin match on Saturday to qualify for the T20 final later that afternoon.

They met a strong Taupo Wanderers side in the final at Ray Boord Park.

Batting first, the Indians scored 144 all out before removing the Wanderers for 99 to win the T20 title.

Senior player Umesh Morarji said, to his understanding, it was the first title they had won in the reserve grade for about three years.

He said they got off to a really good start in the final with the bat.

"The opening pair, Pregnesh Kumar and Gurtej Billing, they batted pretty well and put on about 80 runs," he said. "And all the batsmen chipped in with the bat."

He said they then fielded and bowled really well. "We went into the field and did the job."

He said Rashpal Singh picked up four wickets and captain Neeraj Kumar took two wickets and batted well.

Morarji said it was a great effort to win the T20 competition especially in the style they did - knocking over Geyser and the Wanderers on the same day.

"They are considered the two best teams in the reserve grade competition."

The victory over Geyser earlier in the day was also a bit of revenge from last year, when Geyser got the better of the Indians in the T20 final.

"I think they were pretty confident they would beat us [on Saturday] but lucky for us we all did our jobs."

Morarji said they would now look to carry on that winning form into the after-Christmas, 40-over competition.

"I would not say we are overconfident but I would say we have a team to do the job."

The 40-over competition will kick back into action this weekend, with the semifinals being played on March 21.

The Rotorua/Taupo senior reserve grade includes three trophies, including the pre-Christmas competition, after-Christmas and T20 competition.