Battle Inside The Cage Puts Atlantis At 5-1
By John L. Aaron
Atlantis Cricket Club – NY climbed to a 5-1 record while defeating Richmond Hill Cricket Club, as the Eastern American Cricket Association’s 2012 season completed Round 6 of its Zone One matches.
Atlantis' Nick Standford hit 57 off of 63 balls in their win against Richmond Hill.
Played at “The Cage” in Baisley Park in Jamaica, NY, Richmond Hill won the toss and elected to take first strike with veteran Debo Sankar and Wahid Ward opening the batting for Richmond Hill, however with two runs posted Ward was back in the pavilion caught off the bowling of Nicholas Standford. Richmond Hill would lose another three wickets while adding only 33 runs to their tally as Royo Sankar went for a deuce trapped lbw by Greg Robinson, along with Prashad Mahadeo and Deryck McDonald for 3 and 2 respectively, through the efforts of Nicholas Standford.
Debo Sankar with a classic 42 (3x6s) off 64 balls, was caught off the bowling of Hugh Craig. However, it was the inning of Shameer Sadloo, 64 (3x4s, 4x6s) off of 78 deliveries and not out, that bothered Atlantis the most. The batsman survived four chances along the way, including two back-to-back dropped catches at deep long-on by the same fielder, prompting one spectator to rename the batsman Shameer Catloo; a reference to the mythical nine lives of a cat. The stylish batsman would eventually run out of partners as wickets fell around him with Dhaniram Seepersaud being the only other batsman to record double digits (18) in the Richmond Hill inning. Richmond Hill collapsed at 150 in the 38th over, including 20 extras.
The Richmond Hill wickets fell at: 2, 15, 29, 35, 74, 90, 138, 145, 150 and 150. Bowling for Atlantis, Nicholas Standford was the most successful with figures of 8-0-33-3, while Greg Robinson posted 8-0-26-2 and Hugh Craig had 6-1-27-2. Atlantis’ skipper Prashanth Nair got among the wickets with 7-0-23-1 while having the misfortune of two catches being dropped off of his bowling.
Atlantis in reply cruised to their fifth win in six matches. Despite losing opener Jason Greaves via an lbw to Deryck McDonald for I with the score on 10, Atlantis’ Henderson Blades and Nicholas Standford put on an 89-run partnership, before Standford was adjudged lbw off the bowling of Shameer Sadloo for a well-made 57 off of 63 balls, striking 5x6s and 4x4s in his third half century in six matches for the season.
Opener Henderson Blades contributed 43 with 2x6s and 4x4s, before being caught off the bowling of Wahid Ward. Ron Andrew, who scored a century the previous week against Liberty Cricket Club, was caught off the bowling of Dhaniram Seepersaud for 3. Other contributors to the Atlantis six-wicket victory were Alex Amsterdam, 15 and Kavishwar Bridgepaul, 9, both not out.
The Atlantis wickets fell at 10, 99, 113 and 142, as the team posted 152 for 4 in 29.4 overs including 13 extras. The wicket scalps were shared between D. McDonald, S. Sadloo, W. Ward and D. Seepersaud, each with one scalp. Ramphal Bactowar had a fine bowling spell of 5-2-8-0 and was unlucky to not get among the wickets with such a great effort for Richmond Hill.
In the end it was a great battle between two teams that boast the tools to get the job done, however in the end Atlantis always seem to have a different player or a valued partnership pop up to lead the charge. Last weekend it was the second-wicket 89-run partnership between Henderson Blades and Nicholas Standford that secured the victory for Atlantis. Standford has always demonstrated the skill-sets to perform above the rim as a competent all-rounder and last weekend he did so remarkably well, capturing three wickets and coming back to post half of a ton for his team Atlantis.
This Sunday, Atlantis comes up against Phantom Cricket Club at Heckscher State Park and it’s left to be seen whether the 5-1 Atlantis will sing at the Opera of the final match of the EACA’s Zone 1 seven-match competition. Richmond Hill faces off against East Side Warriors at Brentwood, NY.