Eastern American Cricket Association | Scorecard
Royo P. Sankar
It was a day that Camelot Cricket Club(CCC), not only rather, but never, ever, want to remember for the rest of their cricketing challenges or future endeavors—more so, forget as quickly as possible, as former Guyana and United States batsman Sudesh Dhaniram completely and single handedly pulverize their hapless bowling attack—sending balls flying to all corners of the ground and out of the park; in the process cutting down leaves as he went into landscaping mode at times, while amassing a scintillating 246 not out—punctuated with 18×6 and 21×4. It was entertainment to the fullest that had all of the Richmond players and the small crowd cheering wildly and non-stop. This article cannot do justice describing such an innings, even Inductee John L. Aaron—will have some degree of difficulty lining up adjectives.

Sudesh Dhaniram hit and unbeaten 246 that included 21 fours and 18 sixes as Richmond Hill battered Camelot. Photo by Royo Sankar

Winning the toss and electing to bat first under hot and humid condition, Richmond Hill Cricket Club (RHCC) opened with Debo Sankar and Prashad Mahadeo while young Michael Katwaroo was entrusted with the new ball along with Zaheer; with both batsmen struggling to find form they were more content— turning over the singles and waiting for the occasional bad balls to clobber. However, with the dismissal of Debo for 21 and the scorecard on 47.The Match suddenly entered into turbo-gear as Sudesh Dhaniram strode to the wicket and immediately announced his arrival with a scorching drive that rocketed to the fence—from there on until the 40th over was bowled, it was the Sudesh Dhaniram show at the Cage! His innings was filled with glorious cover-drives, spanking square-cuts and effortless sixes and will linger in the memory of all watching for many years to come.

Dhaniram shared partnerships with Mahadeo (23), Wahid Ward (24) which included 3 towering sixes and Zaheer Sadloo an unbeaten 39 as Richmond Hill compiled a Massive 377 for 3 off their allotted 40 overs. Half-way through Dhaniram’s innings the body language of all the Camelot players told a whole story. As they chased the ball or try stopping it from reaching the fence—collapsed on the grass taking several minutes to recover, even as the bowl, would limp to the run-up. Naresh Ganaidoo was the most successful bowler with 2 for 69 off 8 overs, while Michael Katwaroo was the only bowler to survive the onslaught—going for 44 runs off his 7 overs with the wicket of W. Ward. RHCC wicket fell at: 1- 47 (D. Sankar), 2- 48 (P. Mahadeo) and 3- 192 (W. Ward).

Battered, bruise and tired the Camelot players never looked like getting anywhere to 100, much less a daunting 377. Royston Harry and Ian Chin opened for Camelot and with the score on 10 Harry was caught and Bowled by McDonald for 10 which included a 4 and 6. Kemal Singh joined Chin and the pair took the score to 62 before Singh retire with muscle cramp. Ron Frazier was bowled by Ramphal Bactowar for 12 while S. Singh coming at #5 was stumped by W. Ward off Shameer Sadloo for 2 , Tahir Surijpaul  was run out for 14 ,Naresh Ganaidoo (2), Michael Katwaroo (0) and Suresh (0) was all dismissed cheaply as they was eventually skittle out for 88. Camelot wickets fell at: 1- 10, 2- 62, 3-72, 4- 72, 5- 86, 6-88, 7 -88.