By Sam Sooppersaud
EACA 40-overs Tournament
Atlantis Cricket Club’s all-rounder Keon Lake put in an (what else) all-round performance as his club walked all over the mighty Richmond Hill Cricket Club when the two giants in the Eastern American Cricket Association met in their scheduled 40-over contest in The Cage, Baisley Pond Park, Queens, New York.
Keon Lake was definitely the star of the game with figures of 6 for 19 and struck 63 vital runs.
The RHCC took first knock. The dependable Debo Sankar and Zaheer Sadloo opened the batting for their club. They lost Sadloo in the fourth over. (16-1). Sudesh Dhaniram, new man in, and Debo Sankar took the score to 56 when Debo Sankar was run out attempting a misjudged second run. A direct hit sent him to the showers (56-2). The hard-hitting Wahid Ward joined Dhaniram. This was the partnership that RH hoped would have done some damage control.
Damage control it was not. Rather it was further damage done to their batting lineup. Dhaniram went the next over comprehensively bowled by Casper Davis, Jr. The previous ball the batsman had smashed through the covers for a boundary. The one that bowled him swung back in late from about the off stump and smacked into the middle-leg stumps. Dhaniram had offered the classic forward defensive. No, the bat had no hole! It was just a beauty of a ball from Casper Davis, Jr. (70-3).
The fourth wicket partnership of Wahid Ward and Safraz Ali (19) took the score to 108 when Ward fell for 28 which included two towering 6’s and three 4’s. (108-4) in 23 overs. Within the next 10 overs the remaining 6 wickets fell for the addition of 33 runs. The architect of the RHCC batting disaster was Keon Lake who returned figures of 7 overs, 1 maiden, 19 runs, and 6 wickets. Casper Davis, Jr., 2 for 23 and Jamiel Jackman, 1 for 25, were the other wicket takers. RHCC 141-10.
Needing 142 to win, the Atlantis club commenced their run chase in a very confident mood. After all, they bat deep down the order. However, within three overs, three of their top batsmen were back in the shed. (10-3) Derek McDonald accounted for all 3 wickets with figures, at this stage, of 3 wickets for 5 runs. A fourth-wicket partnership of 107 runs between opener Dominique Rikhi (56 not out) and Keon Lake (63) put them back on the path to victory. Rikhi played the more supporting role while Lake was knocking the bowlers around for 4’s and 6’s.
By the time the fourth wicket fell (Lake) Atlantis club was standing on solid ground. M. Noble (8 not out) and Rikhi (56 not out) made sure that their club stood in the winner’s circle. Atlantis 142-4. Bowling for RHCC, D. McDonald 3 for 23 and Sudesh Dhaniram 1 for 18 accounted for the four Atlantis wickets to fall.
Atlantis had totally dominated RHCC.