Zamin Amin 5 for 13 helped restrict Big Apple to total of 120. Photo by Shiek Mohamed
By Kerk Higgins
On Sunday, August 2nd, Everest/ACS defeated defending champions Big Apple (BA) for the second time this season. School was in session at Bay Park as Trevor Walke and Zamin Amin shared nine wickets. The two veterans with a combined age of over 100 years, destroyed BA’s batting lineup, sticking to the basics and allowing the batsmen to make their own mistakes. The Everest/ACS’ bowlers were well supported by their fielders.
BA won the toss and guess what? They chose to bat first as they have done for most of this season. The BA openers Dominique Rikhi and Tyrel Dat negotiated the first over which was bowled by Charlton Senior, who had dismissed former West Indies (WI) test opener Darren Ganga the previous day when the NY Legends defeated the WI Legends, who are on their tour of NYC. Trevor Walke bowled the second over and struck immediately, as he had Dat caught at the wicket. Walke who doesn’t have a great deal of pace, but because of his height gets a nice out-swing and bounce which carries through to the keeper. With the score on 25, Walke had his second victim when Richard Ramdeen drove to slip, and after a juggling act by veteran Terry Hastoo, was eventually caught.
At the water break, BA was struggling at 67 for 5, with Trevis Ross and Eion Katchey trying their best to repair the damage. Ross and Katchey continued for another three overs until the latter ran down the wicket and missed a delivery from Zamin Amin, and didn’t even bother to look back as he was stumped by Wasim Haslim. That wicket signaled the end of the largest partnership of BA’s inning (51). The remaining BA batsmen didn’t stick around too long as they had no answer for Amin’s left arm spin. After 23.4 overs, Amin had Brandon Dat caught behind to complete his second five-wicket haul of the season.
Trevor Walke finished with 4 for 46. Photo by Shiek Mohamed
It was a miserable display of batting by the defending champs as they only managed a gettable 120 runs on a wicket that wasn’t doing anything unusual. The top scorers for BA were Ross (35) and Katchey (24), extras chipped in with 22. It was an excellent bowling performance by the two senior Everest/ACS players who ended with figures of 5 for 13 (Amin) and 4 for 46 (Walke). The other wicket went to Charlton Senior.
BA, knowing that they have defended smaller totals before, entered the field looking very confident. Everest, on the other hand, knew that they had 240 deliveries to get 121 runs. Everest started their inning with Steve Nowrangilal and Suriname national player Muneshwar Patandin, while BA opened the bowling with Eion Katchey.
Everest/ACS got things rolling from ball one, as Nowrangilal played a beautiful square-cut for four. Nowrangilal who is usually an aggressive batsman didn’t disappoint, as he would hit two more boundaries before BA realized that fast bowling was not going to get the job done. Skipper and right arm off-spinner Zaheer Saffie came into the attack in the fifth over and dismissed Nowrangilal with his very first delivery. Saffie also got rid of Patandin as he seemed to trouble the batsmen. The captain was shutting down the runs flow from his end, with his first four overs all maidens. Unfortunately, for BA, he wasn’t getting any help from the other end as the batsmen were scoring freely. USA national player Karan Ganesh and Suriname national player Wasim Haslim were batting very sensibly to make sure they brought the game home.
Everest/ACS reached their target with 11.3 overs to spare. Ganesh missed out on his second consecutive half century since returning from the USA national team’s participation in the ICC Cricket World T20 Qualifiers in Ireland, ending on 45 not out, while Haslim finished on 43 not out.
It was a beauty to watch some quality seam bowling from one of the oldest players in the league – Trevor Walke, proved that you don’t need to bowl above 80 mph to be successful. Well-bowled Trevor! I wish a few young fast bowlers were there to learn a thing or two from the veteran quickie. With the loss, BA drops to second on the points table behind Liberty Sports Club, who defeated Galaxy. The two seeded teams Liberty and BA will clash this Sunday at The Cage.