By Sham Ali
(Celebrating 46th Anniversary):- It is the beginning of a new day as the Cosmos Kings began their season last Sunday at Idlewild Park. After some good efforts from the Cosmos executives to provide an opportunity for some of their youths to play cricket, since their chances of selection in the senior team were slim, a decision was taken to enter a Cosmos youth team, Cosmos Kings, in the New York National Cricket League Sunday morning 25 overs competition.
That decision was met with overwhelming approval from the senior boys, and especially from the youths. The impressive fifteen-year-old all-rounder, Alvin Gobin, will lead the team. He will be in good company of the astute Azam Yakub, the hard-hitting Devin Persaud, the energetic Baveshwar Utam, and of course the entertaining Doneshwar Dayananad, while a few of the senior boys will be in their company to offer any assistance.
They were early for their 8:30am schedule against Next Gen XI at Idlewild Park, all suited up and ready for the challenge ahead. Next Gen XI won the toss and inserted Kings to bat after the match was reduced to 20 over due to heavy overnight dew. Devin Persaud and Deoraj Sewanan got off to a good start with an opening partnership of 42. Persaud was impressive for his 24 runs off 17 balls pulling to the square-leg boundary on two consecutive occasions before he deflected one onto his stumps. An entertaining partnership between Dayanand and Utam kept the scorecard ticking. Yakub had his brief flare in the end while the anchorman in our last intra-club match Anthony Rambaran was all padded up and waiting as the inning ended with Cosmos Kings getting 94 for 8 in their allotted 20 overs. R. Mohabir took 3 for 14, K. Kowlessar 1 for 7, and T. Naraine 1 for 22.
In reply, Next Gen XI was up to the task at hand with K. Kowlessar and Jaden Ramlakhan opening the batting. Kings managed to pick up two early wickets, however, and excellent 3rd wicket partnership of 39 runs between Kowlessar and captain Chatram Panday (16) took the the score to 66 for 3 in 13 overs.
Kings needed to make further inroads into the opposition’s line-up, however, Kowlessar was playing the anchor role as he stitched together another crucial partnership of 25 runs with Ethan Aparicio before Kowlessar went for an excellent 47 runs. Kings captain Gobin returned for two excellent overs, however, the left-handed Aparicio (20), looked solid and very composed as he stroked the ball with good authority to see his team home as Next Gen XI sealed a comfortable victory by five wickets with the score on 95 for 5. A. Gobin took 1 for 17, D. Dayanand 1 for 9.
Cosmos Kings with play Demroc XI next Sunday at Roy Wilkins Park.
