Sunday, July 26, 2015 – Atlantis Cricket Club – NY dueled in The Cage, at Baisley Pond Park with Richmond Hill Cricket Club last Sunday, as the two top teams in the Eastern American Cricket Association league’s 2015 Cricket Zone 40-Overs season begins to settle in to the second round of matches, with the top teams in the two divisions fighting it out for divisional supremacy.
Alex Amsterdam returning from ICC’s CWC T20 Qualifier in Ireland struck an unbeaten 102 to see Atlantis home.
Richmond Hill winning the toss and electing to take first strike got off to a slow start, before staging an 84-run third-wicked partnership between Nedesh Basdeo, 63 (4x6s, 5x4s) off 55 balls and Wahid Ward, 46 (4x6s, 3x4s). That partnership would be the mainstay in Richmond Hill’s rally until a 60-run eight-wicket stand shared by Shameer Sadloo, 47 (3x6s, 3x4s) and Jerald Mangal, 35 (2x6s, 2x4s), helped the inning along, to a final tally of 256 for the loss of eight wickets at the conclusion of the 40-overs. Other contributing batsmen reaching double figures for Richmond Hill were Deryck McDonald, 18 and opener Marlon Kallicharran, 11. There were 17 extras. The Richmond Hill wickets fell at 11, 19, 113, 131, 141, 151, 169 and 229.
Bowling for Atlantis: Keon Lake topped the charts with figures of 8-1-30-3, followed by Michael Noble 8-1-30-2, Prashanth Nair 7-0-67-2 and Jamiel Jackman 6-0-46-1. It was a day when Atlantis displayed a safe pair of hands holding on to all eight catches offered in the eight dismissals.
Atlantis offered a rate of 6.43 runs per over for victory, jumped out with a solid nine-over opening partnership of 69 between Shawn Mason, 56, (3x4s) off 39 deliveries, and Henderson Blades, 35, (8x4s) compared to their opponent’s opening partnership stand of 11 in two overs. The Atlantis batsmen took advantage of the host’s hospitable run-(in)fested Cage, punishing the bad deliveries along the ground for 24 boundaries compared with Richmond Hill’s 17 earth scorchers. Airborne, Richmond Hill enjoyed the edge with 13 maximums compared to Atlantis’ 4, which may explain Sir Everton Weekes’ maxim “You can’t get out caught along the ground.”
It was Atlantis’ skipper Alex Amsterdam’s ton however, that delighted the summer crowd bracing the chain-linked fence at The Cage. Playing his first match upon his return from representing the USA at the ICC’s CWC T20 Qualifier in Ireland, Amsterdam quickly returned to romping on the mat after playing on the luscious green tops of the Irish strips. His 102 not out included 3x6s and 11x4s off 78 balls, as he almost single-handily steered his team to the four wicket victory.
Amsterdam commandeered most of the strike, while being supported at the other end by fellow USA national player Nicholas Standford, 13, Michael Noble, 13, and Dwayne Smith, 19. Atlantis climbed to the victory at the 257 run mark in 36.4 overs, losing only six wickets along the way. The Atlantis wickets fell at 69, 95, 105, 166, 211 and 216.
Bowling for Richmond Hill: Shameer Sadloo 2 for 44 and Sean Thompson 2 for 69 were supported in the wicket grabbing contest by Nedesh Basdeo 1 for 36 and Jerald Mangal 1 for 51 in the losing cause. Extras contributed 10.
With the victory Atlantis moves to 6-3-1 and remains in the #3 pole position behind Big Apple (9-1) and Liberty Sports (9-1) Clubs, and atop Richmond Hill in fourth place with a 4-6 record.