EACA 40-overs Tournament
By Shivnan S. Ramjattan
Richmond Hill Cricket Club (RHCC) had the best of Victory Cricket Club (VCC) in a lackluster contest on a slightly demanding pitch, bundling them out for 131 in 31.1 overs—after they had posted an appreciable 208 for eight in 40, through a string of contributions from the middle order.
Prashad Mahadeo led Richmond Hill batting with 43. Photo by Shiek Mohamed
It was not the most spectacular cricket, but it was sensible and rousingly comical at times from Richmond Hill and perhaps a touch too circumspect from Victory, whose batsmen did not do enough, and whose bowlers were committed, disciplined and penetrative. It all occurred at Brentwood Park on long Island, NY last Sunday.
When Victory skipper Harleem Singh won the toss and bowl first it appeared to be a sound decision, given that the pitch was dry, on the slower side, and when Zaheer Sadloo (1), Wahid Ward (10) and Pradeep Roopchand (23) were back in the pavilion with RHCC precariously placed at 50 for three in the 8th over—it appeared that VCC would have their work cut out. However, A 4th-wicket partnership of 66 between Safraz Ali (32) and Royo Sankar (25) consolidated the innings and quickly diminishes any further cogitating of a collapse.
The duo batted sensibly by picking the gaps regularly and keeping the scorecard ticking with Safraz–hitting the occasional boundaries.
With the departure of Royo and Safraz with the scorecard on 116 and 118 respectively, Prashad Mahadeo coming at number six then began to up the tempo with some ferocious cuts and sweeps, his 43 from 32 balls peppered with four fours, one six and with contributions from Deryck McDonald 18, Shameer Sadloo nine and Ronald Evelyn 10 not out at the bottom—then saw RHCC get past the 200 mark. Among the wickets for VCC were Harleem Singh, Jasdeep Singh and Nipun Manglik with two each. RHCC wickets fell at: 6 (Z. Sadloo), 36 (W. Ward), 50 (P. Roopchand), 116 (R. Sankar), 118 (S. Ali), 157 (D. McDonald), 186 (S. Sadloo) and 205 (P. Mahadeo).
In their chase of a modest target at just over five an over—VCC floundered badly losing their first five wickets of Shravan Gadeela (2), Harleem Singh (0), Zeeshan Syed (7), Jasdeep Singh (4) and Manjeet Singh (6) with the scorecard reading 35 in the 11th over, complements of some probing line and length from Wahid Ward and Deryck McDonald right on target.
However, Nipun Manglik with 33 (5×4 and 1×6) along with Gurcharan Luthra (24) showed some defiance and in the process—taking VCC past the 100 mark, but as soon Ramphal Bactowar dismissed both of them the rest of the tail stumbled to the spin wizard with the exception of Zeeshan Syed with an unbeaten 14 as they were all out in the 32nd over. The chief architects in the dismissals were Wahid Ward and Ramphal Bactowar with three victims each. VCC wickets fell at: 3 (H. Singh), 5 (Z. Syed), 13 (J. Singh), 20 (S. Gadeela), 35 (M. Singh), 65 (N. Singh), 76 (N. Manglik), 114 (G. Luthra), 118 (S. Patel) and 131 (S. Katamaneni).
