JCL T20 Champions for the First Time!

The Sharks have won the JCL T20 for the first ever time, defeating the Falcons in a rematch of the final played on October 25th at SICG. After the original final was suspended as no result because of rain, in a match where the Sharks bowlers had taken 3 wickets in the first three overs, there was worry in the squad that luck was against us. But winners make their own luck, and the Sharks crushed it – and the Falcons –  in the rematch. 

Captain Abhi has provided us with the following match summary:

Rewind to one weekend before (Japan Cup Finals) – we defeated the Falcons for the 2nd consecutive final in a row this year, having already beaten them in the East Kanto final.

All in good spirit with both teams……later we saw one Falcons player posted *one unfinished task due this weekend* post on Instagram. Which meant they wanted to defeat us in the JCL T20 final in the coming weekend and already started some mind games before meeting for our 3rd final of the year.

On the ground it was the usual good, friendly banter between both teams …. good fielding and bowling ensured that the Falcons were restricted once again to an under-par score 

The Sharks batters Ben and Gufi made sure we could see the finish line before the winning hit came from Rithvik’s bat. 

The Sharks have now completed a T20 clean sweep this year (not losing a single T20 game since last year’s Japan Cup Finals) 

2025 Japan Cup Finals (4/4) – WWWW

2026 East Kanto Japan Cup (6/8 ; 2 washouts) – WWWW NR W NR W

2026 JCLT 20 (6/7 ; 1 washout) – WWW NR WWW 

2026 Japan Cup Finals (4/4) – WWWW

So we’ve gone 23 T20 games without a loss. surely that’s a record in Japan cricket. 

There were happy celebrations throughout and of course the cherry on the cake was our social media post with the winning team and next picture being the picture posted by falcons player *one unfinished task due this weekend* with a DONE

I couldn’t have said it better myself! 

In another indication that today luck was with the Sharks, the match finished just before the rain from Typhoon 30 hit.

One final note – The Falcons included ex Sharks JCL 1 Final winner Bhuvith, who removed both Benny and Ghufi, after having himself been removed by Freddy during the Falcons innings; it`s a small community in Japan Cricket, especially at the top (somewhere where I will never be)…at the end of the day we are all friends doing what we enjoy – getting outside, smacking a ball around, running between some sticks stuck in the ground and trying to take a few catches. The Sharks are just the best at it.