Ara/Te Pukenga All Nations Cricket Festival in Christchurch brought together cricket enthusiasts from different ethnicities to enjoy and share their love of cricket.
Organised by Christchurch Metro Cricket Association(CMCA) with the support of Christchurch Multicultural Council, the sixth edition of the Multiethnic T20 Cricket Tournament was held over three Sundays, 27 November, 4 December and the final day was 11 December at Hagley grounds.
Being a warm and humid final day, the morning games proved to be all-important in deciding who would make the grand final later in the afternoon. The Daredevils faced the Cornered Tigers, and the match was won by the Cornered Tigers, who secured one of the final spots with three wins from three games.
In the other pool, the Afghan XI lost to PlaceMe in the morning after a close fight. As a result, the Christchurch Super Kings and Afghan XI were compared with their Net Run Rates, and the Afghan XI advanced to the final with a higher Net Run Rate.
The final started well for the Afghan XI with Player of the Tournament Ghofran Shasawar making early strikes with the ball. Habib Marwat took the long handle for the Cornered Tigers hitting three sixes, but his inning was cut short and some accurate bowling and good catching had the Cornered Tigers out for 110.
With some showers falling, the Afghan XI came out knowing that 5 overs would constitute a game and they needed to be on 28 to be in front of the rate.
Harry Khan stepped up with a series of big hits to put the Afghan XI well in front of the run rate, and despite the loss of his wicket with the score on 70, the Afghan XI cruised to a 7-wicket win.
General Manager of CMCA, Mike Harvey, thanked Surinder Tandon and the Christchurch Multicultural Council for their efforts, the Christchurch City Council, Ara/Te Pukenga and Two Fat Indians for supporting the festival.
Surinder Tandon, President of the Christchurch Multicultural Council, congratulated the tournament-winning team Afghan XI and runners up Cornered Tigers.
He said, "Objectives of multicultural cricket tournaments are to promote cricket in multicultural communities, provide an opportunity to players of diverse cultures to play competitive cricket, and to foster social cohesion, unity in diversity and fellowship."
Medals were presented to the winning and runners-up team players. Trophies were awarded to the winners Afghan XI, the Player of the Tournament- Gofran, the Most Wickets Bowler - Javed Safi, and the Most Runs Scorer - shared by Habib Marwat and Harry Khan.
The festival managed to provide an inclusive and welcoming environment to promote the idea that cricket is a sport that is open to everyone, regardless of their ethnicity or cultural background.
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