1st May, 2021, Guatemala City.
The first match of Guatemala Premeir League was played on 16th of January. Let's have a brief overview of whole series.
Game-1
Guatemala City Cricket Team 218/5 in 20 overs (Pravesh Raturi 78*, Widman Chicop 2/14) beat Caballeros de Santiago 94 in 13.1 overs (Tanmay Banga 3/7, Sanjay Banga 2/14) by 124 runs. In the inaugural game of the series, Caballeros de Santiago invited Guatemala City Cricket Team to bat first, and the latter really enjoyed batting as they posted 218 runs on the board. It was the innings of Pravesh Raturi which made the difference between scores of 150 and 218. He smashed every bowled out of the park, hit seven boundaries to go with as many maximums. While, Caballeros de Santiago had no answers to the chase, they were totally outplayed against a fine bowling performance from Guatemala City Cricket Team. Tanmay Banga, Sanjay Banga, Jai Pokhriyal and Kohit Banga were among the wickets.
Game-2
Guatemala City Cricket Team 178/6 in 20 overs (Kohit Banga 78, Geo Jolon 3/26) beat Caballeros de Santiago 111 in 19.5 overs (Geo Jolon 33, Kohit Banga 2/2, Tanmay Banga 2/21) by 67 runs. In the second game of the series, Kohit Banga's alround show with bat and ball did it for Caballeros de Santiago. He first scored 78 runs for his team and then took two wickets to defend the total. In this game, Caballeros de Santiago were bowled out for 111.
Game-3
Guatemala City Cricket Team 188/6 in 20 overs (Purav Turakhia 46, Russell Humphries 3/38) beat Caballeros de Santiago 158/7 in 20 overs (Robert Jitz Ramos 55*, Nikhil Chandan 3/34) by 30 runs. It was a do or die game for Caballeros de Santiago, they needed to win this game to remain in the series. But eventually they couldn't do so in front of some outstanding bowling spells from Guatemala bowlers. Guatemala City Cricket Team defeated Caballeros de Santiago in three matches in a row.
Game-4
Guatemala City Cricket Team 231/6 in 20 overs (Purav Turakhia 100, Kohit Banga 66, Widman Chicop 2/14) beat Caballeros de Santiago 108/9 in 20 overs (Luke Humphries 26, Rian Turakhia 4/15) by 123 runs. With Guatemala City Cricket Team having already won the series, now it was the time for both the sides to play freely. And yes, captain Purav Turakhia did well to smash a 48-ball hundred. He, alongwith Kohit Banga added 99 runs for the first wicket. After 20 overs, Guatemala City Cricket Team posted 231 runs. In bowling, Rian Turakhia delivered a sparkling performance of 4-1-15-4, and hence Guatemala won the match by 123 runs.
Game-5
Guatemala City Cricket Team 104/2 in 11.2 overs (Purav Turakhia 61*, Luke Humphries 2/26) beat Caballeros de Santiago 103 in 20 overs (Geo Jolon 26, Kohit Banga 4/19) by 8 wickets. This was the only game where Guatemala City were batting second. They absolutely gave no chance to Caballeros de Santiago and performed a clean sweep. First, Kohit Banga grabbed a four-fer and then in batting, Purav Turakhia did the remaining job by hitting an unbeaten knock of 61.
After a series of five matches, the winning captain Purav Turakhia, remained the top run-getter with 249 runs at a SR of 187. In bowling, Kohit Banga scalped the most number of wickets with 9 wickets in four innings. He was also named the 'Most Valuable Player' for his alround performance. He smashed 210 runs at an average of 52.50.
