Win For Meten-Meer-Zorg, LIU And Everest While Richmond Hill And Liberty Play To A Tie

Meten-Meer-Zorg Defeated All Star Cricket Team By 102 Runs
In bright sunshine and colorful uniforms from both teams MMZ captain Azurdeen Mohammed won the toss and elected to take first strike. Mohammed and Ken Nandkumar opened the batting and were severe on the All Star bowlers hitting the ball to all parts of the field.

Meten Meer Zorg sporting their new color clothing.

Mohammed was the first to go for a well played 53, Amarnauth Persaud came in and was adjudged LBW for 16, the attractive young Trevis Ross came in and played some glorious shots for a quick 25, Nandkumar played well for 61.

New player Saud Hussain came in with the overs and time running on his team, Hussain played some handsome strokes to all part of the ground for a well deserve 51 not out and MMZ finish with a huge total of 282 for 7 off 35 overs when time ran out.

All Star started their innings with Saleah Ahmed and Shaan Rampersaud. Rocky Kowchai and Zaaid Majeed took the new balls for the MMZ boys. Rampersaud was first to go caught for 2 off Majeed. The young Himalaya Darji came and played some fine shots before he was smartly stumped by Ejaz Asgarally. Andy Mohammed and Trevis Ross bowled excellent with Mohammed picking up 3 for 29 off 7 overs and Trevis Ross 3 for 28 off his 7 overs. All Star was eventually bowled out for 180 off 29.3 overs.

Final scores MMZ 282 off 35 overs, Ken Nandkumar 63, Azurdeen Mohammed 53, Saud Hussain 51 not out and Trevis Ross 25.

All Star 180 all out off 29.3 overs, S. Ahmed 37 and A. Rampersaud 36.
Bowling for MMZ: A. Mohammed 3 for 29 and T. Ross 3 for 28.

MMZ will now take on the talented Big Apple Cricket Club on Sunday at the picturesque Riis Park, the last time these two met in the 40 overs competition they played to a tie at the same venue a year ago. This game will be a great Mother’s Day outing for the family with the weather in the 70s.

Good luck to both teams.

Waqas Ashiq Leads LIUCC With Sensible Knock
Victory CC won the toss and chose to field under cloudy skies, specially with veteran and wily seamer Anil Bhardwaj cancelling his flight to California and staying back to take the new ball. Long Island United did not start well with Harleen Singh doing Waqar Younis impressions with his swinging Yorkers from White street end, and clean bowling Babar Zia with nothing on the board.

Waqas Ashiq of Long Island United.

In walks the 21 year old wicket keeper batsman Waqas Ashiq, with a lot of responsibility and three final exams on his mind Monday morning. Omer Ali and Waqas consolidated responsibly, as Anil and Harleen both bowled beautifully to keep things tight and the fielders interested. In the first ten overs the run rate was about 3, but no more wickets had fallen. Victory CC bowlers would have done a lot more damage with some better catching to support them. Eventually Omer went to blinder of catch by the VCC Captain Sumit Rajpal for 23, and the LIU captain Sajeed Khan was also brilliantly run out for 5 by his counterpart Sumit.

Next batsmen in was 18 year old Anwer Kamal (Khan). The two youngsters ran hard and kept things simple, giving a clinic in strike rotation and staying positive and calm. Waqas Ashiq held the innings together with a well paced 85, and timely hitting by Ishtiaque Gul and Asim Mehmood, to close for 236 for 7.

Victory CC started without the young guns Rohit Kwatra, as he was in South Side Hospital getting his hand stitched up, injured going for a catch. It should be noted that the discussion about the quality of the game ball was doing non stop circles as this incident happened.

LIU opened their bowling with their wicket keeper Waqas Ashiq sitting out and studying as two catches went down behind the stumps in the first two overs. The fast bowling trio of Anwer Kamal (Khan) 5-0-9-2, Ishtiaque Gul 6-0-25-3, and Qasim Dastgir4-0-18-1, supported by the captain Sajeed Khan 6-0-15-2, did an excellent job to close the VCC innings at 74 in 21 overs.

Richmond Hill And Liberty Play To A Thrilling Tie
Opening day of the EACA competition couldn’t  have a better start as RHCC won the toss and elected to field on a heavy outfield as their opponent Liberty CC post a challenging 182 all out in 39.3 over.

Fidel Soonandan of Richmond Hill had a four wicket haul. Photo by Shiek Mohamed

Fidel Soonandan was very impressive with the ball picking up the first 4 wickets that of Marlon Kallicharran 8, Hemchandrabose Persaud 35 (3×4) and (1×6), Danesh Deonarine 12, Michael Noble 5 with the score on 76 . However, Skipper Imtiaz Hassan would play a cameo 36 (3×4) and (3×6) and was well supported by young Vijendra Singh with 24, while the Khilawan brothers contributed 12 and 14.

Richmond Hill Skipper Ramphal Bactowar was very economical with figures of 8-1-17-1 and well supported by young Michael Ketwaroo 5-0-26-2, Mahendra Seeram 8-1-29-1, Deryck McDonald 8-1-34-0, Deoram Puran 1.2-0-3-2. while D. Seepersuad only over would cost 20 runs.

The Sankar brothers Debo and Royo posted a strong  Richmond Hill reply with an opening stand of 103 runs. Debo being more aggressive with well timely executed boundaries when needed, as Royo choose to anchor the innings by turning the strike over regularly.

However, Liberty triggered a middle order collaspe with 3 run outs, starting with Royo Sankar for 41when he attempted a quick single at short third man, direct throw from Taknauth Khilawan, Dhaniram Seepersaud for a duck as he was backing up too much at the bowler’s end and Deryck McDonald attempting a quick single and couldn’t make his ground in time. With the scoreboard reading109 for 3. Mahendra Seeram join Debo Sankar and the pair would take the score to 133. However, needing 49 to win with 48 balls the game headed for an exciting finish. Debo was brilliantly taken at deep square leg by Thakur Singh for 77 (6×4) and (2×6) followed by M. Seeram 20, R. Bactowar 4 and F. Sooknandan without scoring.

Young Deoram Puran and Surendra Naul 13 and 5 not out respectively saw RHCC to the End. With 7 runs needed in the final over to win. The pair only made 6 with the final ball needing 3 to win.  Surendra Naul nudge it past the keeper for 2 bringing the game to a thrilling tie.

Amin Brothers Bowl Everest/ACS To Comfortable Win
Everest/ACS vs Phantom CC
Phantom won the toss and elected to bat first.
Innings of Phanton 79 all out off 27.1 overs: Zain 25.
Bowling for Everest/ACS: S. Amin 8-1-22-4, T. Walke 8-0-1-26, Z. Amin 5.1-1-11-3, A. Merchant 4-0-16-1, K. Ganesh 1-0-2-0, T. Hastoo 1-0-1-1
Innings of Everest/ACS 82 for the loss of 1 wicket: Steve Nowrangilall 46 not out, S. Shah 2 and Tamesh Balwant 24 not out.
Bowling for Phantom CC: Zain 4-0-34-1, Shawn 1-0-18-0, Faraz 2-0-23-0, Khalid 1-0-7-0