By Sham Ali
(Celebrating 43rd Anniversary – Match #1190):- In their opening match of the 2022 cricket season in the New York National Cricket League, Cosmos suffered a heavy defeat to Yakusari at Flushing Meadows Park last Sunday.
The preseason hype which Cosmos rode in their previous warm-up match against Staten Island disappeared rather quickly. Actually, six wides in the second over is a good enough dose to intoxicate any team, and it did. That became the norm throughout the match after Yakusari won the toss and elected to bat after the match was reduced to 25 overs.
Yakusari batsmen feasted on a delightful meal of full-toss and long-hops that was willing served by Cosmos bowling chefs. Opening batsman, the left-handed Nirshaw Khan played a steady hand as he simply waited to be served by a Cosmos bowling attack that lacked length, line, and direction; three basic skills that appears to be a dying art. The Cosmos bowling in this match was just mediocre, and it received the deserved treatment from the opposition’s batsmen.
Ryan Ganesh, medium pace, and Shane Singh, right arm off spin, were the only two bowlers who looked the part and will definitely get better as the season progresses. While Naresh Persaud, medium pace (if you can call it that) bowled as if he was spraying from a ‘water-can’ while Khamraj Conyers looked totally lost as to the difference between pace and spin. Devindra Balgobin appears to have a lot to carry as struggled to get to the crease.
Left-arm orthodox spinner Towgeshwar Thakoordeen had a bad day while Akash Rahim had some landing-gear issues. Doneshwar Dayanand continues to impress, and in his limited capacity, was in the match all the way, while Yogeshwar Ramgobin and Devon McCarthy will look to improve as they nurse a few niggles.
And through all the misfits, Khan played some juicy punches through the cover point region. He was belligerent on anything that was short as he stroked his way to an excellent century, 121 not out that included 11-6’s, and 9-4’s. He was ably supported by Tamesh who got 25, and the veteran S. Seepersaud who remained on 25 not out as the Yakusari inning closed on an imposing 226 for 4 off their allotted 25 overs with 37 extras being the second top score that included 31 wides.
Cosmos in their reply had things to do and places to go as this match had a degree of consistency about it; Cosmos batting mirrored their bowling as their batsmen entertained with a series of airy-fairy strokes against a tidy opposition bowling attack. Naresh Persaud got 33 while captain Yudesh Shivpersaud got 19 as Cosmos folded for a paltry 105 all out in the 24th over. T. Persaud was the pick of the bowlers with 6 for 15, while V. Chetram and S. Mangroo took 2 for 12 and 2 for 17 respectively.
