Team Stars.
ICUSA 2009-2010 Indoor Winter Cricket League Tournament advanced with victories by two teenaged cricket teams, “Stars” and “Stripes”. These teams are the products of the institution’s cricket training program, which is being run by three certified West Indies Cricket Board level one cricket coaches, at its Morristown, New Jersey facility. The “work-in-progress” team “Stars” won its two matches, while the “Stripes” team was victorious its two matches against “New York Magicians”, who has completed all of its matches in the preliminary rounds of the Tournament. These victories are inspiring sources of encouragement for the young potential USA cricketers of the next generation and their coaches, who have been working assiduously in training them at ICUSA’s cricket educational institution.
Sparky Lady vs. Stars
“Stars” batted first and compiled an imposing 144. That score resulted mainly from an assortment of ill disciplined bowling, which contributed a significant 86 runs in wides and no-balls. The “Stars” batsmen applied themselves loosing only 2 wickets in their inning. In reply, “Sparky Lady” found the energetic bowling and fielding of the youths too much for them to achieve the run rate required for the chase and they ended up with 122 to loose the game by 22 runs.
Team Stripes.
New York Magicians vs. Stripes
In this match the “New York Magicians” tested the endurance of “Stripes” who appeared not to have been properly focused and as such were somewhat careless in their approach to the basics of the cricket game. They were taking the game too lightly and their performance was not correlated to their potential strength, which was needed to be displayed at this particular home-stretch stage of the tournament. Nevertheless, they were fortunate to sneek out a victory and hopefully learn from their errors in order to advance their cause in the Tournament.
“Magicians” batted first and scored an inadequate100. “Stripes” in reply nearly imploded as they struggled to mount an appropriate chase. In the 8th over of their innings there were 2 dismissals for minus 8 runs as Prince Baby produced an excellent over for the “Magicians. That over created pressure on “Stripes” last pair who appeared at the crease requiring to score a challenging 36 more runs against a fired up fielding team. However, fortunately for “Stripes” they were awakened from their slumber by some intelligent batting from Cameron Mirza and intense application by Parth Tharnari. They took their team to a much needed win by closing off the inning at 109.
New York Magicians vs. Stars
The improving “Stars” got their act together to defeat the “Magicians”. “Magicians” batted first and scored 107. Roshan Patel and Taahir Latif were outstanding with their bowling. The former’s two overs yielded 0 runs for 3 dismissals while the latter’s conceded a miserly 7 runs for 1 wicket. In reply,”Stars” inched their way up to 113 which included a lucky last pair partnership of 54 between Roshan Patel and Anush Tharnari. It was aided by 24 runs from wides and no-balls as the “Magicians” bowlers lost their lines in the closing stage of the innings. “Stars” won by 6 runs to end off their evening’s campaign in a state of joy and happiness.
New York Magicians vs. Stripes
The “Magicians’ batted first and scored a seemingly imposing 140 as ‘Stripes” bowling and fielding were below their normal standard. For “Magicians’, Naipaul smashed a stroke filled 27 and wides and no-ball accounted for 34 to give the “Magicians” team the ascendancy as they took the field to defend their score. As “Stripes” replied the “Magicians” had the game under their control when the last batting pair strode to the wicket with the score on 89 and 51 more runs needed for victory by “Stripes”. It was then that “Stripes” floating on the crest of a lucky evening and the “Magicians”, in their 3rd. consecutive game of the evening, and being consumed by tiredness, combined to create a win for “Stripes”. The “Magicians” bowled the most horrible over of the Tournament- the penultimate over of the game. It was an 18 deliveries over which yielded 36 runs of which 25 runs were wides and no-balls and presented the “Stripes” with a victory by 9 runs as their innings ended with the score on 149.
The final results of the evening games were “Stripes” 2 wins, no losses; “Stars” 2 wins, no losses; “Sparky Lady” no wins, 1 loss; and “New York Magicians” disappearing into a very soggy and chilly night in Morristown, New Jersey, with 3 losses and no wins, as their campaign in the preliminary games of the Tournament came to an end.
There are 6 more matches left to be completed in the next two week ends before the Tournament moves into its Super four Stage with the Finals schedule for 6:30 p.m.on Saturday April 17.
Reporting for ICUSA from Cricketers Paradise in Morristown New Jersey.
