Centennial Regional Park, June 13, 2015 – “The boys are very happy. The job is not done yet; we have two more games to go.” – Shantha Suraweera, Manager OCCA Cougars.
The Orange County Cricket Association Cougars’ overall team performance as hosts propelled them to their first ever ACCL win in the South West region, defeating the Arizona Cricket Association Scorpions in the 2nd annual American Cricket Champions League Tournament at Centennial Regional Park. It was sweet revenge for the Cougars who were stung by the Scorpions a week ago in the teams’ first encounter in this year’s ACCL tournament.
Having won the toss, the Scorpions put the Cougars in to bat on a beautiful turf wicket in Centennial Regional Park, in Santa Ana, Orange County. The Cougars’ openers batted sensibly, with three of their top four batsmen reaching double figures and maintaining a healthy run rate. By the 33rd over the Orange County Cougars had scored 155 runs while conceding six wickets. It was anticipated that the Cougars would post over 225 runs, a good total to defend on the Centennial Regional Park strip, however, some bad shot selections and excellent catching by the Arizona Scorpions restricted the Cougars to 172 all out at the end of the 36th over. (Shaveen 45, Virath 31, Arman 34, Nishan 30, Prathap 2 for 39 and Amith 2 for 21).
Chasing 173 to clinch both ACCL games against the Orange County Cougars, the Arizona Scorpions lost one of their openers with the score at 51 runs in the 12th over, but Sunith dominated a 37-run stand with Sid to keep the Scorpions firmly on track. Both openers were dropped by the Cougars, and at one point it seemed as though those dropped caches could cost the Cougars the game. However, the Cougars’ bowlers bowled good lines and lengths and runs were hard to come by.
Sid removed Maggi in the 23rd over and from there onward wickets fell regularly, with only one batsman reaching double figures for the Scorpions.
Sid completed his eight over spell with excellent figures of 8-0-24-3 and Ayeshan finished his spell with 6-0-26-4. Manjula Vithana grabbed an excellent catch to dismiss Narayan off Sid’s bowling, and from there onward the Orange County Cougars capitalized on all opportunities to dismiss Arizona Scorpions for 147 runs at the end of the 36 th over.
The Orange County Cougars are scheduled to meet the Southern California Kings on July 12th at Woodley Park, in Southern California.
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