By Sham Ali
A clinical sixth wicket partnership between Sham Ali and former Guyana U19 player Sohan Dass combined with an unwavering team effort led Everest Masters to a thrilling three wicket victory over Bleachers in the Masters semi final at Idlewild Park, Queens last Saturday.
Sham Ali hit a responsible 40 to ensure a win for Everest. Photo by Shiek Mohamed.
This match-up between these two very experienced teams was carded to be a hard fought battle and it did lived up to the expectations. Everest took a major gamble on a slow turning pitch to rest their ace slow, very slow off/leg spinner Iqbal Sherriff after they won the toss and inserted the opposition on a “tricky” wicket and a slippery outfield. Trevor Walke, the man who kept the boys in gear and focused on the task at hand, and the man who had carried the load of the bowling attack for his team the entire season delivered his trademark economical spell again along with Feezo Sheriff, who sported his taped up and well manicured six stitches between his fingers, was equal to the task.
At the end of the opening spell, Everest had played to plan and was looking to tighten the screws even further on this opposition, Lincoln (2 for 37) got the important breakthrough, and however, Bleachers took their chances after their captain Austin Hutchinson (28) threw his wicket away after he had seen the shine off the new cherry. When Dass held onto a tumbling catch on the mid-wicket boundary to get rid of danger-man, former Jamaica player, Robert Chambers. Everest look to tightened the screws, but, the Bleachers middle order batsmen then responded with a series of lusty blows, nine sixes, to plant a few threatening bugs into Everest Masters plan and put their team in a commanding position before Sham (2 for 15) had squeezed in three tight overs to end the inning. D. Meikle blast a breezy 40 (4-6s) and P. Haywood got 19, when Bleachers closed their inning on a very challenging 170 for 6 in their allotted 30 overs.
In reply Everest Masters two centurions, Ganesh Ramsingh, with a ton of runs behind his name this season and a torrid time on the field today, and his partner Debo Sankar were a bit tentative against the Bleachers new ball as they cautiously began to build an important opening partnership that worth 47 runs, before Sankar was run out for 21 runs and Ramsingh mis-hit a full toss for 21 runs. Well, Wayne, “the slugger” Stuger (21) who always lights up the camp with more laughs and confusion throughout the season, edged into the final squad while sporting his outdated seventeenth-century cap, chimed in with his signature few sixes before he miss-hit to deep mid off, Royo Sankar was then given out stumped and Zamin Amin, “did not show up for this match,” when he committed the unthinkable, cutting at the off spinner.
At 86 for 5 in the 19th over with Everest top order reeling and captain Zamin Amin making his way back to the pavilion, Bleaches bowlers were seemingly on course to securing a comfortable victory and perhaps envisage an early day as some spectators had left in anticipation of an Everest defeat. However, Sham Ali and Sohan Dass, two seasoned campaigners were determined not to mark their crease for the last time in this Masters competition and subsequently proceeded to repair an inning that has been dented, they began to carefully chisel away at the opponents total in a fight to the finish.
Sohan Dass contributed a valuable 25.
The atmosphere was getting very tense and Bleachers began firing from every angle with captain Hutchinson trying everything in his archive to break the partnership. The vocal crowd clashed from both sides and then suddenly they became very anxious. Sham and Sohan (two old men) absorbed the atmosphere and appeared unflustered listening to the sound of silence and the crack of leather on willow clutching onto their endurance to the end.
They began to pierce the gaps regularly picking up the vital singles and often converting ones into tows. The partnership began to look ominous as this pair went about their business of batting with purpose. With both batsmen out of breath and out of many other things, Dado and Omar had already made many trips to the middle with the hope of reviving the two masters while Iqbal and Zainul, if they did not lost their voices then, they are probably overdose on lozenges by now. But who can question the champion and lone believer – Zamin Father – as he paced to and fro mapping the probabilities of balls and runs in his visual mind that victory is still possible.
With Everest Masters needed another 57 runs from the last 7 overs, the tempo of the match suddenly shifted; maybe the water had something in it. Sham flicked twice to the square leg boundary and then unleashed two rockets passed the side screen, while Sohan blazed through the covers and then swept elegantly to the square leg boundary. The scale has just tilted in Everest Master’s favor and this pair had seized the initiative once and for all, on a fluctuating day, as they dug deep into their repertoire of strokes to deliver a shocker of seismic proportions to the opposition.
When Sham lost his wicket for a gritty 40 runs in a partnership had yielded 70 runs, he had positioned his team on a firm platform with seven runs needed for victory off two overs. Lincoln found the mid-on boundary off his first ball before he was run out from a direct hit going for a second run, Feezo then had his fifteen seconds of at the crease when he swung and collected three of the best runs in the match – 3 wides – or that is what he said. Through the tense moments though, it was the more experience Sohan (25) who remained unruffled and carried his team to the end somewhat breathless.
This season and this victory in many ways was sheltered by a bit of divine inspiration and often offered some poignant moments of comfort when our point-man Feezo, in our post match brief, reminded the boys of our efforts in memories of our dear friend Ray (Rayco). This season is dedicated to our late friend and colleague Ray, our opening batsman, who retired just before the first ball was bowled in the 2010 season. We take comfort that he is probably sanding and oiling his bat and preparing it for another long inning smiling to see his team is carrying on from where he has left off and waiting anxiously to for the final. And so it was for this Everest Masters team that showed a wealth of discipline in this encounter and humble in victory as they rise to the fore in this semi final win heading to the final for the second time in three years.
The final will be played at Idlewild Park on Saturday Oct 9 and then the 50-man Masters squad will be heading to Jamaica to participate in the Michael Holding Masters Tournament.
