Waslim Haslim hits a maximum during his match winning innings against India at the Baisley Pond Park. Photos by John Ramsingh
By John Ramsingh
Scorecards: New York XI vs India | Guyana vs Bangladesh | New York XI vs Pakistan
The Baisley Pond Park (BPP) hosted the first triple header on Saturday May 27 in this year’s Rockaway New York T20 Cricket Fiesta and despite the cool conditions throughout the day the action in the middle was heated.
In the match of the day, defending champions Pakistan lost a low-scoring thriller to hosts, New York Select XI by three wickets with six balls to spare.
As the trend goes, Pakistan decided to bat upon winning the toss and were aiming for a 200 plus total but their opponents who are playing as a team for the first time this season, had other ideas.
Off-spinner Terrence Madramootoo and right-arm fast bowler Seon Daniels had impressive opening spells that set back the free scoring Pakistanis. In the end the 2016 champions were bowled out in the final over for 111 with middle order batsman Jahanzeb Alam hitting a patient 36 from 45 balls (1×4; 1×6) to rebuild the innings after his team was struggling at 46-6 in the ninth over. Umer Farooq hit 17 (7 balls; 2×4; 1×6) at the top of the order but no other batsman got going against the quality bowling which was backed up by superb fielding.
Keon Lake (right) is the Man of the Match against Bangladesh.
Wasim Haslim mopped up the tail to finish with 3-5 from 3 overs while left-arm seamer Deveshwari Prasad (2-20), Madramootoo (2-22) and Daniels (2-26) took care of the top and middle orders as the work load and returns were shared evenly.
Muhammed Khali (2-20) and Wahab Munir (1-25) then sent back the consistent Chris Patadin (14) and Haslim for a duck while Wahid Ward also fell for a duck in his first game as NY XI were reduced to 22-3 in the third over.
With the match in the balance, Karan Ganesh then played a captain’s knock to see his team through to their third consecutive victory and firmly on top of the points table. The right-hander scored an unbeaten 38 from 48 balls (1×4; 1×6) and with Dayanand Roopnarine 27 (25 balls; 2×6) got the run chase back on track with a crucial 42-run fourth wicket partnership. Deveshwari Prasad also blazed 18 from 12 balls (1×4; 1×6) after the required run rate was soaring. Adnan Nasim picked up 2-12 as ball dominated bat throughout the contest. With one needed from the final over, Munir sent down a wide as NY Xi finished on 112/7 much to the jubilation of the nice crowd on hand.
Earlier, New York Select XI opened the day with a clinical performance over debutants India with a seven-wicket victory. India were sent in and thanks to a late order resistance got to 167/7. Syed Aleem top scored with 45 (27 balls; 4×6’s) while Saad Younus made 32 (28 balls; 2×6), Haider Ali 28 (11 balls; 2×4; 3×6) and Dwayne Johnson 26 (23 balls; 2×4; 2×6) also contributed. In the bowling department, Madramootoo (2-10), Gavin Singh (2-18) and Chris Sewpradad (2-18) claimed two scalps each.
Wasim Haslim then blazed the trail in a Man of the Match performance to finish the game with 82 not out from 37 balls (2×4; 9×6). Chris Patandin made a quick fire 24 from 14 balls (1×4; 2×6). Rafiq Ugrader (1-12), Krunal Kapoor (1-26) and Poro Burman (1-30) were the wicket takers.
In the second match of the day, Guyana bounced back from their opening round defeat to beat Bangladesh by 43 runs.
Karan Ganesh is all smiles after completing victory over Pakistan.
After winning the toss, Guyana posted a challenging 181/6 with Derrick Narine registering his second consecutive half century scoring 50 runs from 23 balls (3×4; 4×6) and got support from Guyana First Class player and Amazon Warriors selectee, Gajanand Singh who stroked 32 from 27 balls (1×4; 1×6) batting at number three.
After a middle order stifle, Rajiv Ivan (30 not out) and Matthew Marques (30) played some lusty blows to score 61 from five and a half overs to end the innings on a high. Robin Das was the pick of the Bangladesh bowlers with 3-30 from four overs.
In their first match of the season, Bangladesh were then bundled out for 138 from 19.4 overs with off spinner Keon Lake spinning webs round the top order with 4-24 in a Man of the Match performance. Guyana’s captain Andre “Rusty” Kirton picked up 3-13 as Robin Das top scored with 29 while Syed Hussein made 19.
The tournament will take a break this weekend and will resume on June 10 with a double header at the Canarsie ground. Pakistan will take on Bangladesh while India battle Jamaica.
The Rockaway Cricket Fiesta began in 2016 with four teams of expats from Trinidad and Tobago, Bangladesh, Guyana and Pakistan. This year, T&T failed to field a team while India, Jamaica and the New York Select XI which is made up of mainly Guyanese were brought in.
The final is set for August 12 at the Baisley Pond Park (BPP) for a top prize of US$7,000. The tournament is sponsored by the Rockaway Group of Companies comprising of The Royal Empress Banquet Hall, Rockaway Roti Shop and Rockaway VIP Taxi Service in Queens New York.