The Midwest Chargers Squad.
By Balbir Singh
Last year’s American Cricket Federation (ACF) American Cricket Champions League (ACCL) finalists Midwest Chargers (MCT) won their second home game this season against the Pittsburg Miners in a four-match series which took place at Matula Park, Goshen, KY. The remaining two games will be in Pittsburgh, with the third game schedule for August 8, 2015.
MCT Chargers won by 119 runs in the 40-over match. Both wins this season with good margins, means MCT are much closer to booking their spot for this year’s national title in Orlando, FL. The Midwest Chargers batting first, lost Suresh Murali for just two runs – early in the inning. But Devin Patel’s come back in the Chargers inning, played an important role in steadying the inning with captain Prasenjit Singh who got out for 23 of 24 balls with 3 fours.
Last year’s captain Bharat Jataprolu joined Devin Patel to further steady the ship, and the Chargers built their innings around a 66-run third-wicket partnership. Devin Patel, the most experienced batsman in the team started his inning when team score was 7 for 1 in the third over. He was finally out with the score at 145 for 5 in the 32nd over. Devin’s painstaking knock of 45 from 92 deliveries contained just one boundary, but he dismantled all hopes of the Miners winning the match.
Later Vice captain and hero from the last year’s first historic ACF tied game – Navdeep Dhaliwal (48 with 3 sixes and 2 fours from 32 balls) and Hammad Bokhari (22, 1×6, 1×4), did some late hitting to close out the inning at 226 for 8 in the 40 overs.
Besides P. Pati who scored 40 off 49 balls with 2 sixes and 2 fours, none of the other Pittsburg Miners batsmen performed well. Mohsin Kapadia (8-1-25-4) and Navdeep Dhaliwal (7.2-0-23-4) bowled a tight line and length, to contain the Pittsburg Miners batsmen.
New ball bowler Ashu Chaturvedi bowled a very economic spell of 6-3-9-0. He also took two brilliant catches in the outfield to build the initial and ongoing pressure.
Brief scores:
MCT Chargers: 226 for 8 in 40 overs (Prasenjit Singh 23, Devin Patel 45, Bharat Jataprolu 34, 4x4s, Chirag Ambaliya 11, Navdeep Dhaliwal 48, 2x4s, 3x6s, Ferhan Ali 10, Hammad Bokhari not out 22, Ravi Patel 3 for 54, Sid Gujral 3 for 32, S. Shinde 1 for 43, S. Joshi 1 for 39).
Pittsburg Miners: 107 all out in 31.2 overs (M. Patel 17, Pratik Patel 10, Prajna Pati 40, 2x4s, 2x6s, Muthu Shanmugham 14, Mohsin Kapadia 4 for 25, Navdeep Dhaliwal 4 for 23, Ferhan Ali 1 for 23, Chirag Ambaliya 1 for 8).
Navdeep Dhaliwal – Man-of-the-Match for his top score of 48 from 32 balls with 3 sixes and 2 fours, and his bowling spell of 7.2-0-23-4.