Eastern American Cricket Association T20 Blitz
By Royo P. Sankar
Prolific Batsman Sudesh Dhaniram blasted yet another ton, his 5th for the season and surpassing more than a thousand runs, and in the process scripted yet another Richmond Hill Cricket Club (RHCC) victory. He was well supported by Wahid Ward with a belligerent half-century as the duo piled up A huge partnership of 115 off just 50 balls.
The prolific Sudesh Dhaniram. Photo by Shiek Mohamed
Inserted to bat first after losing the toss to Centurions Cricket Club (CCC), RHCC compile a mammoth 233 off their required 20 overs for the loss of two wickets. Sudesh Dhaniram continues to torment bowlers at will, all over the park this season with another breathtaking and superb century (106 not out), (11x4s, 7x6s) off just 49 balls; he along with Debo Sankar (27) put together an opening partnership of 94 in 11 overs.
Wahid Ward coming in at number 3 then hammered a cameo 67 (1×4, 9x6s) providing the late charge for a huge total. He was at his best—mowing every bowler that bowled to him cleanly and very far out of the park. V. Persaud and Carlos were the only bowlers that had success with one wicket each.
Facing a mammoth 223 at an asking rate of 11.15 per over, Centurions Cricket Club give their best performance possible, but a futile attempt to over haul such a huge total. Troy Dudnauth struck a fluent 43 from 32 balls that included 2x4s and 3x6s and Deeraj Sewnanan 38 (1×4, 2x6s) from 33 balls—give some life to Centurions response.
Trevor Singh ran himself out backing up too far for 12 and Orrett Myrie (13) went via the same route, was the only other batsmen to reach double digits. As the Centurions innings folded for 123 for 8 when their 20 overs expired. Deryck McDonald and Ramphal Bactowar had two wickets each, while Kumar Nandalall and Shameer Sadloo picked up one each with RHCC winning by a huge 100 runs.
Brilliant Imtiaz Hassan Helps Liberty Humiliate Richmond Hill
A brilliant all-round performance from Liberty Sports Club(LSC) that was orchestrated by Imtiaz Hassan, helped his team humiliate Richmond Hill Cricket Club (RHCC) last Sunday in front of a small crowd that gathered to witness the contest at Baisley Park, popularly known as the” Cage”. Winning the toss and taking first strike—Liberty’s Andy Harricharran and Thakur Singh provided a solid opening stand of 57 off just five overs.
Imtiaz 'Tizzle' Hassan struck an unbeaten 51 and picked up 3 wickets in Liberty Sports Club win over Richmond Hill.
Thakur Singh (30) clubbed three well-timed boundaries in Deryck McDonald first over and get the early momentum for LSC along with Andy Harricharran (30), providing the support role in their stand. However, they would suffer a brief middle order collapsed—courtesy of Skipper Shameer Sadloo with three victims: Danesh Deonarine (0), Terrence Madramootoo (0) and Marlon Persaud (10). Nandalall accounted for Altaf Habibulla (2), with the scorecard 83 for 5, Liberty needed to rebuild as quickly as possible if they were going to provide a challenging total.
Imtiaz Hassan—strode to the wicket and wasted no time as he began to repair LSC innings , he took Shameer Sadloo 3rd over for 13, a huge six , then followed up that with a scorching drive for four, he then hammered 16 of Ramphal Bactowar next over, which included a six and 2 fours. As the scorecard moved quickly from 85 for 5 to 160 for 8 in their allotted 20 overs. It was a superb batting display by Imtiaz Hassan as he remained unbeaten with 50 (4x4s, 3x6s) off 27 deliveries—in the process set-up a daunting total for RHCC.
Shameer Sadloo had the most success with 5 wickets, while Kumar Nandalall picked up 2 and Ramphal Bactowar had 1.
With an asking rate of 8 runs per over—RHCC chase was off to a disastrous start. Imtiaz Hassan taking the new ball and bowling from the basketball court end, inflicted a gaping-hole in RHCC’s ‘behemoth’ batting line-up—sending back , prolific Sudesh Dhaniram (0),Wahid Ward (13) both, smartly taken by Thakur Singh at long-off and Shameer Sadloo (13) bowled all-over-the-place, attempting a big swing . Andy Harricharran induced Debo Sankar(14) going for his favorite pull-shot, straight to Altaf Habibulla, who took A with a brilliant diving catch.
Scorecard 35 for 4 off 6 overs, Imran Ali (28) and Zaheer Sadloo (26) came together and franticly depressed the reset button, with a 5th-wicket partnership of 55 from 48 balls, hoping to swing the game towards RHCC, but it was a futile effort. As both was dismissed trying to improve a quickly climbing run rate, Ali in the 14th over and Zaheer in the 15th. Kumar Nandalall struck a quick 16 from 10 balls before Marlon Persaud had him caught in the deep. Scorecard 109 for 7 in the 16th over.
With a further 51 required from 24 balls at an asking rate of 12 an over—the rest of RHCC batsmen began to swing wildly at anything short, full or up—with the ball, only going straight to a fielder, but not pass the 30-yard circle. Andy Harricharan bowling a disciplined line cleaned up the tail, he had Deryck McDonald (6) swinging wildly and given lbw—umpire Steve Kallo raising the dreaded finger slowly, and Ronald Evelyn caught without scoring. Terrence Madramootoo accounted for Prashad Mahadeo(1) as RHCC folded for 115 all out in 19.2 overs—giving Liberty victory by 45 runs as the Boys in Blue began to celebrate wildly across the field.
Imtiaz Hassan and Andy Harricharran scalped 3 wickets each while Marlon Persaud and Terrence Madramootoo bagged 2 respectively.