11 Aug 2024

Aurostar Rays have clinched the 2024 Botswana Diamond Manufactures Association (BDMA) cricket league championship with a dominant seven wickets victory against WDM on Saturday at the Cricket oval ground in Gaborone.

After winning the toss, Aurostar Rays opted to field first and were a marvel to watch constraining WDM to only 122 runs in 15 overs with the games played under a shorter T15 format.

Aurostar Rays brilliant fielding was also complimented by some world class bowling heroics from Vipul Mistry with three wickets and only conceived 22 runs during the entire innings which granted him the best bowler accolades.

 With a low 122 run to chase, Rays’ Batsman, Chetal Patel propelled his team to victory hitting 62 runs from 42 deliveries.

 Patel’s batting was incredible on the day as he found the boundary seven times and walked away with the best batter award.

Aurostar Rays finished at the summit of the league unbeaten with 10 points from five matches while WDM were runner-ups with eight points from five outings.

The third spot is occupied by Yerushalmi Bros with six points, followed by Diarough with four points from two victories, while the last two spots are occupied by M Suresh-Safdico and Ankit Gems respectively. 

In the post games interview, chairperson of the BDMA cricket league Siddarth Gothi applauded participating teams for their commitment and competitiveness during the entire series.   “Let me congratulate the champions on their milestone after winning the league unbeaten and also commend all the teams for maintaining a level of sportsmanship spirit during the tournament,” he said.

Gothi indicated that BDMA league was important in the development of cricket in Botswana especially in identifying and developing talent.

Gothi thus called on the business community to invest more on developing the game of cricket with special reference to infrastructure. ENDS