Eastern American Cricket Association Power-40 Competition
By Royo P. Sankar | Scorecard
Richmond Hill Cricket Club (RHCC) is flying high with 37 points of the points standing in their division. A superb team effort that was engineered by captain Shameer Sadloo, and saw them thump every team in their zone, some of which was badly beaten or severely wounded by a ferocious RHCC during the first phase of the competition and in the process remained unbeaten.
Prolific Sudesh Dhaniram with young Eion Sadloo. Photo by Royo Sankar
However, there was a few that gave RHCC hiccups that ended up in thrilling finishes, As the final round of the Eastern American Cricket Association Power-40 competition concluded last Sunday. Victory Cricket Club was no exception to that group, as they suffered a humiliating defeat. Captain Harleen Singh won the toss and without hesitation opted to bat first.
Harleen Singh and Rohit Kwatra opened for Victory and with the score on 19, Kwatra was first heading back to his seat caught for 12 off Imran Ali. Darshan Raval came in at # 3 and held the innings together—defending stoutly while turning the occasional singles and hitting the odd bad balls to the fence. Ramphal Bactowar was introduced and in his second over dismissed Singh, bowled for 12. Nipun Manglik stayed briefly, cracking 3 boundaries in his 17 before Bactowar had him Caught. Ray Mohan batting at #6 was the only other batsman to reach double figures with an unbeaten 21. As Shaunek Patel (4), Pratik Panchal (3), Harmandeep Singh (0) and Virupaksh Unawane (1) fell cheaply. Soon they were all dismissed for a disappointing 126. Victory wickets fell at: 1-19, 2-36 ,3-61 ,4-76, 5-92 ,6-102 , 7-106 , 8-107 , 9-118 and 10-126.
With a asking rate of just 3.15 runs per over the Richmond hill cricket club batsmen wasted no time getting there. It took only 12 over to knock off their target. Imran Ali and Wahid Ward led from the front ,but Harleen Singh got is man going for an extravagant cover drive —nick that only ended up in the wicket keeper gloves. The dangerous Sudesh Dhaniram joined Ali and the pair took turns smashing anything short, up or full effortlessly to the fence or out the park. Imran Ali would depart for 30 that included 4×4 and 2×6 with the scorecard on 49.
Royo Sankar came in at #4 after missing-in-action through injury as he and Dhaniram, whom at the time was at his best and looking to finish the game in a jiffy, with raining sixes and fours took the score to 109, before Royo was given a dubious decision—stumped out for 9. However, Dhaniram fell in love at first sight with Pratik Panchal—his first over would go for 29, 6 ,6, 6, 4, 1 and 6. One of the six ended up in a house on Long street and in the process Broke a window, as the Lady came out to access the damages and begun to holler “Oh god them broke my window”. RHCC President Alim Abrahim went over along with the League President Rudy Persaud to assure and calm her that it would soon fix. Dhaniram 79 not out of just 34 balls (6×4, 7×6) and Moin Sadloo 0 not out saw RHCC home without any further interruption.