Practice Match #3 — Challengers Beat Tigers CC by 26 Runs at Thamesville

Two practice matches in two days. Challengers Cricket Club returned to Thamesville Cricket Ground on Sunday for our third 20-over practice fixture of 2026, this time facing Tigers CC. We posted 142 batting first and defended it for a 26-run win — making it three wins from three practice outings heading into the league openers.

Match Summary

Toss: Challengers won the toss and elected to bat.

Challengers were bowled out for 142 in 18.3 overs, with two batters scoring identical 32s and a steady 27 from Abhishek Ladva anchoring the middle order. Tigers, chasing 143, were restricted to 116/8 in 20 overs by a tight Challengers bowling unit — the front-line attack giving up under five an over across the first three changes. Final margin: 26 runs.

Top Performers

How the Match Played Out

First innings. Challengers lost wickets at regular intervals through the middle order — Akber and Lovely both grabbed two each from the Tigers attack — but two cameos kept the run rate climbing. Shivam Rajput came in and smashed 32 off 16 with three boundaries and two sixes (SR 200), and Gokul Prakash matched the 32 off 17 with a strike rate near 190 lower down the order. Abhishek Ladva's 27 off 34 held one end together while shots happened around him. Tigers' bowling was disciplined enough to keep us under 145, but our lower-order acceleration meant the total still gave us a defendable platform.

Second innings. The defining performance was Syed Shahriar: 4 full overs, 16 dot balls, only 9 runs conceded, 2 wickets. That economy of 2.25 strangled the chase from one end. Abhishek Ladva, Shivam Rajput, and Judin Thomas each contributed a wicket and kept the dot-ball pressure on. Tigers needed boundaries to chase 143 and we just didn't let them score them — only one Tigers batter (Syed R, 25 off 20) cleared a strike rate above 125. Despite three retired-out batters in the middle of the innings, Tigers couldn't generate the late-overs surge required and finished 26 short on 116/8.

MVP & Best of

Watch the Full Match

Highlights will be uploaded to the Challengers YouTube channel in the next few days. We'll attach the embed here when it's live — or you can subscribe to the channel and get notified the moment it goes up.

Members — Reflect While It's Fresh

Registered Challengers CC members can sign in to C3H and add a personal reflection card for this match. Three matches in three days is a lot of cricket and a lot of new shots to think about — write it down before next practice and the system will surface patterns and recommend Batting / Bowling Principles to focus on.

👉 Watch the match on C3H Match Replays and click Reflect on this match to open your reflection journal.

Looking Ahead

Three practice wins, three matches recorded, settled units in both batting and bowling. LCL T30 opens May 10 vs London Predators at Northridge Cricket Ground; LPL T30 the same day vs Maple Tigers at Silverwoods. Weekly Wednesday training resumes May 13, 7:00 PM at Silverwoods.

Thank You

Thank you to Tigers CC for the fixture, to Thamesville Cricket Ground for hosting back-to-back Challengers matches, and to every Challenger who travelled, played, scored, or watched. The standard is set — league season starts now.

Challengers Cricket Club — London, Ontario's inclusive community cricket club. Registered Ontario Not-For-Profit Corporation #1746974-8. Follow us on @challengers.cc and subscribe on YouTube for match livestreams and highlights all season.