Guyana Softball Cup 8 underway

—Semi-finals billed for DCC under lights this evening

The eighth edition of the annual Guyana Floodlights Softball Cricket Association (GFSCA) international softball cup, bowled off yesterday at a number of venues across the City.

Results emerging from the Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) saw a number of exciting contests as Ontario Masters out of Canada sent a stern message to their counterparts in the Masters over-45 category after notching up two major wins.

The Canadian side first crushed Narine Masters by 52 runs at the end of their high scoring contest. Ontario Masters batted first and posted a mammoth 216 for five from their allotted 20 overs with opening batsman Shiv Seeram slamming a brutal 112. Narine Masters in response could only manage 164 before their 20 overs expired. Ontario was once again in the winner’s row in the final Action in the Guyana Softball Cup 8 between Ontario Masters and Albion at DCC yesterday match of the evening when they defeated Albion Masters by 31 runs to cap off an impressive day.

Other results on the day saw Albion Masters defeating Floodlight XI by 13 runs while Floodlights crushed Narine Masters by nine wickets. The tournament will shift gears today with semi-final action under lights at DCC in the hotly anticipated Open category while the masters’ semi-final matches will commence from 14:00 hours at the same venue. SYDNEY, (Reuters) - Australia have dropped test skipper Tim Paine from their one-day squad for next month’s series against South Africa and named opening batsman Aaron Finch as captain in his place.

Finch, who led his country’s Twenty20 side to a 11run defeat to Pakistan in Dubai on Friday to go 2-0 down in the series, will be supported by two vice captains in Josh Hazlewood and Alex Carey, echoing the test structure. Carey replaces Tim Paine as wicketkeeper in the 14-man squad for the three-match series which begins in Perth on Nov. 4 and also includes matches in Adelaide and Hobart.

“We expect Aaron, Josh and Alex to lead the side through a big Australian summer ... they’ll also be driving our standards and values as we prepare our defence of the World Cup, which is only seven months away,” chief selector Trevor Hohns said in a news release.

“We believe the squad we have selected will give us a great opportunity to not only be competitive at home this summer, but it also allows us to start to build continuity leading into next year’s tournament.”

Hazlewood returns to action for his country along with fellow quick Pat Cummins after both skipped the test series against Pakistan because of injury.