The Singapore cricket season which commenced in March is drawing to a close and the Division I league which was up for grabs for most of the year is finally turning out to be a two horse race. It has been a season of low scoring but exciting clashes and looking back, teams will rue the odd overthrow or wide delivery on which the championship has been won or lost.

The fact that most of the teams were evenly balanced was evident early in the year when Ceylon Sports Club (CSC) who just two wins in 1999 pulled off a dramatic last ball victory over defending champions Singapore Cricket Club (SCC I). Stacey Muruthi needing three runs off the last delivery from Razi Sayyed was unable to score giving CSC a two run win. Two weeks later CSC were at the receiving end in another nail biting finish when Martin Seabright hit a boundary off the last ball with United World College (UWC) requiring three to win. In yet another close match, the last wicket pair of Chong and R.Jayakumar steered Singapore Recreation Club (SRC) to a nerve tingling one wicket victory over SCC I.

The glorious uncertainties of the game were clearly demonstrated when the Singapore Cricket Association Colts (SCA Colts) with a team comprising entirely of schoolboys pulled off two marvellous wins over the more fancied UWC and SRC. Singapore Cricket Club's second string (SCC II) who gained promotion to Division I joined in the giant killing spree by defeating Indian Association (IA).

However, as the season progressed, the picture has become clearer and SCC I and CSC have emerged as the front runners. SCC I strengthened by the presence of former Glamorgan paceman Alan Wilkins as well as former National Coach Grant Stanley lead the table with 147 points off 11 games with one match left to play. Last week's 7 run defeat at the hands IA has dented their title hopes and their destiny now lies in the hands of challengers CSC who have 129 points off 9 games. CSC led by Sarika Prasad have performed well as a team and their only blemish was their last ball defeat against UWC. CSC's batting has been bolstered by 21 year old Buddhika Mendis who represented Sri Lanka at Under 17 level. He is one of only two batsmen to have scored more than 300 runs this season and averages over 50.

Jason Pascoe of UWC has been the sole centurion this season and his knock of 124 against SCA Colts is the highest score so far. SRC's Kapila Mendis joins his namesake in being the only other batsman to have an aggregate in excess of 300.

It has been an exciting season and an encouraging one for Singapore cricket with the youngsters finally showing their mettle. It has been a season where the refrain "if only ….." has often been heard and will reverberate long after the title race is run. For the two main challengers, SCCI and CSC, there is still plenty to play for and the clash between these two teams on 17 September promises to be a no holds barred contest which may well decide the outcome of the championship

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