Cricket: Whanganui IPL expands to 12 teams for 2019

Palmerston Super Kings batsman Gurprect Singh looks to send the pink ball to the boundary in his team's opening game of the 2018 Whanganui IPL at Victoria Park.

The third Cricket Wanganui IPL competition looks set to experience massive growth with twice as many teams scheduled to take part on this season at what will be a packed Victoria Park in two weeks time.

A T20 invitational tournament for New Zealand's Indian cricket clubs, the Wanganui IPL started with eight teams in 2017, with six of them returning last year.

This year's tournament is now likely to have 12 teams entering, with most of the regulars returning, along with a big influx of Wellington teams plus others from Hastings and the Bay of Plenty.

The Stars from New Plymouth are back after missing last season's tournament.

Sides are allowed 12 players in a team, which includes a designated non-batter and non-bowler for each game, while there will be no batting powerplays, as per New Zealand Cricket T20 rules.

The first round of matches on Saturday, April 6, will be at 10.30am, followed by the second round on 2pm.

There will be a 10am start on the Sunday for the next round, following by the playoffs at 1.30pm where the Top 2 sides will meet in the championship final, while third will play fourth and on so down.

The added teams raises the prospect of fresh matchups, as the final for the past two seasons has been the Gujarat Lions from Patea facing the Wellington Fateh.

The nucleus of the Lions comes from the Patel family in Taranaki, and in the 2017 tournament they defeated the Fateh by one wicket with two balls to spare in the final.

Fateh got their revenge last year, this time holding on by 11 runs in the championship game, which also came down to the final over.

Lions batsman Kirit Patel was the top scorer for the tournament with 107 from three games, including one of the two fifties scored, while Fateh's Mannu Sanwal was leading bowler with 12 dismissals in four games, including the only five-for which he took in the final.

Hoping for better things will be the home side of the Wicket Warriors.

The Warriors were formed specifically to compete in the IPL from Whanganui's Indian community, and after their foundation the side formally entered the local Bullocks Premier 2 club cricket competitions.

Last year in the IPL, the Warriors suffered heavy defeats in all their games, never once managing to score over 100.

However, in January 26 this year they claimed their first championship in the Bullocks Premier 2 Twenty20 final, upsetting Watsons Real Estate United 2nd XI by five wickets.

Man of the match Bobin Jose and fellow bowler Libin Varghese took key wickets and then opening batsmen Mehul Barot and Anurag Mishra set them on the path to victory.

United got some payback in the semifinals of the Bullocks Premier 2 Pro 40 semifinals last weekend, beating the Warriors by eight wickets to advance to tomorrow's final against the Matt Burke Engineering Marton Saracens.

The Warriors had a 5-4 record with one game abandoned from their 40 over round robin games.

The 2019 IPL teams are:
Wicket Warriors Whanganui
Wellington Sikhs
Gujarat Lions
Palmerston Super Challengers
Wellington Fateh
Sikh Sports Club Wellington
Wellington HDCC Challengers
Hastings Shere Punjab (New)
Petone Strikers (New)
BOPISC Tigers (New)
Rohtak Warriors (New)
New Plymouth Stars (Returning from Year 1)