California Bears 2017 got the shock of the tournament as they were beaten comprehensively by Somerset Cavaliers Cricket Club by 7 wickets in the first semi-final of the 2017 US Open T20 tournament.
Tournament favourites, California Bears, batted first and were bowled out for only 76 runs in 11.3 overs. Tahir Khan ripped apart the batting line-up with 4/9 off 3 overs and got good support from Roy Silva (2/22) as none of the batsmen barring Damion Ebanks (25 off 15), who could post any resistance to the bowlers.
The target was too small for California Bears to defend as Sunny Sohal (23 off 24), Roy Silva (25 n.o off 12) & Xavier Marshall (18 off 10) took only 10.4 overs to reach 77/3 to win the match.
Narine, Zaidi & Davidson picked up a wicket apiece for the Bears.
In the 2nd semi-final, US All Stars 2017 posted a commanding 10 wicket victory over Smart Choice to advance to the finals.
Smart Choice posted 142/4 in their 20 overs batting first with Shazam Babwah (71 n.o off 27) playing a blinder of a knock to take the team to their final total. Mark Deyal (14), Taufeeq Umar (14) & Akeem Alvarez (15) gave support to Shazam during his whirlwind innings.
Rajesh Sharma (2/8 off 2) bowled economically while Dwayne Bravo felt the heat from Babwah’s innings as he went for 40 runs in his 3 overs, going wicketless.
Dwayne & Darren Bravo then left the chase to no-one else as Darren (80 n.o off 30) & Dwayne (56 n.o off 25) made a mockery of the target reaching 147/0 in only 9.1 overs to wrap up the match in style.
Somerset Cavaliers Cricket Club will now meet US All Stars 2017 in the final of the tournament.
