Eastern American Cricket Association Power-40 Division 1 Competition
By Royo P. Sankar
After their thrilling victory over defending 2012, Champion—American Cricket Society (ACS) in the Eastern American Cricket Association Power-40 Division 1 competition, recently. Arsenal Cricket Club (ACC), pumped and ready to do battle, failed to impress during their match-up with the leader in division —Richmond Hill Cricket Club as Roderick Lovell fifer, and another brilliant Sudesh Dhaniram ton, his third of the season— scripted yet another impressive victory.
Roderick Lovell picked up 5 for 41. Photos by Royo Sankar
From the first ball bowled by Roderick Lovell to the last winning run scored by Wahid Ward, it was only one winner seen over the horizon, that team was Richmond Hill Cricket Club (RHCC) as they continue to dominate with aplomb.
Under cool conditions ideal for batting, Arsenal opened with Shawn Carter and Dehaan after winning the toss on a typical fast Brentwood track, while Roderick Lovell shared the new ball with Deryck McDonald, and with the 3rd delivery of the innings bowled by R. Lovell. S. Carter smoked it through point for four—gleaming broadly from ear to ear at everyone. Lovell looked at him with a smirk of his own, returned his bowling mark and the very next ball he attempted the same shot, but only succeeded with an inside edge that rattle his stumps. From there on, Lovell, extracting some life on a seemingly flat and slow track and before you knew they were reeling at 43 for 5. His victims Shawn Carter (4), Dehaan (7), Fayzal Ahmed (15), Lisan Chowdhary (0) and Adnan Akmal (2).
However, the dependable Robin Dass along with Shayed Zaman came together and injected some life into the dismal Arsenal innings with a valiant 6-wicket partnership worth 108 runs. Shayed lend good support to Robin during their partnership before stroking a juicy full-toss high above Royo Sankar head fielding at extra-cover— knocked –up and caught off the rebound of Shameer Sadloo for dogged 38. Robin executed some attractive and gritty cricket shot during his top score of 75 (11×4,1×6) before swinging wildly at Kumar Nandalall—lobbing at straight forward catch to McDonald at point. Shameer and Kumar then wrap-up the tail with 3 and 2 wickets respectively with Mohammad Rehman being the only other batsman to reach double figures with 15. Soon they were all out for 189 in 37 overs. Arsenal wickets fell at: 1-4 , 2- 27, 3-27 , 4-38 , 5-43, 6-151, 7-163, 8-186 , 9-188 and 10-189.
Sudesh Dhaniram slammed an unbeaten 103.
With a asking rate at just under 5 runs per over for victory, RHCC was off to a disastrous start, losing Debo Sankar in the very first over for a Duck off Robin Dass—bowling an impressive opening spell. However, Sudesh Dhaniram joins Zaheer Sadloo and the pair crafted a century stand with Dhaniram in impeccable form dominated the partnership with some exquisite cricket shots all-round the wicket, but at times had to work hard for his runs as the ball began to keep low at times, through-out the RHCC innings. His first fifty came off 52 balls, and bought-up his third century of the season with brilliant on-drive for four that included 12×4 and 4×6, and came off 88 deliveries. It wasn’t an easy track to bat on as Zaheer Sadloo (29) labored for 44 balls before being given a dubious caught at the wicket decision. Wahid Ward was next in, but after a shaky and comical start to his innings, he quickly settled in and began to unleashed a flurry of boundaries which included the winning run—a boundary that went flying to the mid-wicket fence and was unbeaten with 37(6×4 and 1×6).
Finally, it was another treat from Sudesh Dhaniram, his unbeaten 103 was filled with brilliant stroke play that was enjoyed by his team mates, spectators and members from the opposition. He is currently leading in the Batting averages in the competition with over 600 runs. Robin Dass and Mohammad Rehman were the lone wicket takers with one each. RHCC wickets fell at: 1-0 (D. Sankar), 2-115 (Z. Sadloo).