Royal Challenger, Falcons, Better Hope And Super Chargers All Victorious

Falcons Crushed Young Brothers
By Richard Singh
Falcons have done it again, this time in a significant way.  They have proven to be very a dominant team on the field. It was a must win for them and defeating Young brothers enhanced their chance to the 20/20 mini world cup playoff spot.

Opening batsmen N. Tiwari and Sarfraz Ally made a good start for the Falcons team; their partnership was 31 runs before N. Tiwari was out caught for 11 runs. Sarfraz then took control at the crease. He assaulted Young Brothers bowlers; striking the ball for on and off drives; square cuts and several boundaries including 2 sixes to earn 55 runs before he was run out.

Vick Ramnarine made a brilliant 31 runs with some beautiful cover drives before he played the ball right into the stumps knocking the bails off. Eric Bissoon 18 runs and Arif Harun 9 were among the other contributors. Falcons were all out in 19.1 overs for 169 runs.

Young Brothers lost their first wicket for no runs on the board. Roopnarine was caught behind by wicket keeper Leon Abe off N. Tiwari. At that point the tumultuous supporters for Young Brothers became very loud and aggressive. They were abusive and distracted the Falcons team using foul language; accusing the Falcons players of cheating. Nevertheless, Falcons turned deaf ears on them and focused more on the game before crushing Young Brothers to pieces. They were all out for 50 runs in 15 overs.

Better Hope Enter Playoff Undefeated
By James Persaud
Better Hope played in the finals of the first competition of the season and came up short in both their batting and bowling. The team has rebuild and including a good core of all star players in the likes of Erapallai and Ravi Sahadeo, Satro Seeraj and the experience of Ronald Evelyn. Evelyn is a good inclusion in this team, the guy knows how to win and plays his game very hard, he wears his cricket uniform like a business suit and he comes to the park ready for business.

The Sahadeo boys gave the team the extra batting they needed and Erapallai give the bowlers that extra help with his wicket keeping. Better Hope will do battle with Sheffield, Sheffield will not be a walk over and they will do battle to the end. Sheffield skipper Michael Persaud will be short on bowling and have to use his bowlers very smartly or else he could be out of the game early. Sheffield will need a big game from Michael, Dotson, Richmond, Bascom and Crockwell if they are to advance.

New Jersey to take on Essequibo XI, this will be a closely watched game in this division. Both teams are equally match, while New Jersey will hold a slight edge Essequibo XI can change a game in a hurry. New Jersey will bring the big names in the Sookedo brothers Peter and Paul, Surien, Yudy and John Debarros. John Debarros a few season back was an average player who has develop into a good all rounder and he opens the batting. He had some good scores and took many wickets in the qualifying rounds.
Essequibo XI will be depending on their all rounder Cedric Beaton, Beaton a good hitter of the ball who can change a game with a few swings. The rest of the batting will come from Carlos Johnson, Julian Holder, Wesley and John Blackman.

Nationals will play New York All Star, these two teams reach earlier and NY All Star was victorious. Nationals would like to change the result this time, but NY All Star Manager Charles London is hoping for a repeat and feels strongly that his guys deserve to win. He continues to say his team made the playoffs in all three competitions and was only able to get to the second round. NY All Star has good bowling with Wahid, Jagroop, Naurathan, Dharampal and Sooman. Their batting is where they fail in the big game; they will be counting on Harry and Naeem to get big score to move them on. Nationals will be coming with a different plan to change the score this time and will be looking for a good game from the Ulla brothers, Videsh, Hussain and Anand Singh.

Good Fellas will bring youths to take on the experience Wildfire in the fourth game in the division. Good Fellas playing together for the first time this season and it is nice to see a new team making the playoffs this early.  The Good Fellas team is made up of players coming from different teams who was either over loaded or guy who just wanted to move on. The team has a lot of talent with Brian Manniram, Paul Verapen, Jay Ram, Mangru, Johnson, Dilchand and Prashad. Wildfire will bring players who have being with the team for many seasons, Boodhai, Krishna, Vinod, Robby and all rounder Rabindranauth. This will be good game both teams are equally matched the one that plays the best could be the winner.

Super Charged To The Finish
By James Persaud
The New York Softball Cricket League will enter the playoff rounds in its 2010 Twenty20 competition this weekend, with three weeks remaining in the season-there is still plenty of excitement. The players will be making their last push in sticking a claim to the cricketer of the year prize, while seven teams will be trying to stop Hustlers from reaching that coveted Triple Crown exploit.

One of the teams to be watched closely will the young Super Chargers. This team is playing together for the first time, started the season in the second division. They played a big final in the 25 Over Championship defeating Better Hope for the championship. They then made the move into the Premier division and reached the playoff in the 30 Over Cup but were unable to get past the first round. The strength of the team is their bowling but lack the presence of a superstar batsman. In the first round they will take on Cavaliers and will be looking for their opening bowler Vickash Singh to continue his form with the ball. Singh has led the bowlers with in his division with a total of 14 wickets.

The skipper Nayal Singh has done a good job with this team and will be counting on his little brother Vickash to continue dominating the batsman. They suffer a big loss when their all rounder Dharampal leave to play in a lower division, the strength of their batting will come from Asif Ali, Ravin Gopaul, Krishna Gopaul, Nayal and Teddy. The new looked Cavaliers will be looking to move onto the next round. They will be counting on Michael Persaud, Rishi Singh and Gavesh Arjoon to put a reasonable score in the book and giving their pacer Goutam Persaud and spinner Vickram Lall a chance to move them on.

Hustlers won the last two competitions in a somewhat one sided affair. This time around as the leaves changes color and the crisp cold wind gush across the park, the sweet sound of wood making contact with hard compress rubber the chants and cheers could be coming from a different camp. A few of the other teams has picked up their game and Hustlers has not dominate either with the bat or ball in the qualifying rounds of the Twenty20.

But then again this team is led by a master of the game in Kris Sobhai who can get his guys to turn it up a few knots for the playoffs. Hustlers will be taking on Mafia in the first round and these two teams reached in the qualifying round and Hustlers was able to sneak a victory by 6 runs when Mafia overs ran out. This will be a nice rematch Vicky Sugrim and Vishal Singh will be counting on their team to come out in full strength while Ravi Etwaroo will be doing his magic giving the advice.

Assassins will be doing battle with Liberty Knights, Assassins has played good cricket for the last few weeks and are led in their batting by the power hitting Eon Ellis and stroke playing Raja. Their bowling will be spearheaded by pacer Ganesh Chattergoon and swing bowler Frankie Baichu along with backup from Navin Narine, Kaleem Bux, Amit and Eon who has being doing some extra bowling duty this season.
Liberty Knights is a good bowling team but seems not to be getting their batting in order, with the departure of Brian Manniram.

The responsibility of carrying the team batting is left on the experience Ken Sanichar. Should Liberty Knights be able to restrict Assassins batting thereby giving themselves a chance of victory?

Untouchables will take on United Star, these two was schedule to meet earlier and the match didn’t take place. United Star will be looking to knockout Untouchables early, but this will not be easy as Untouchables will be at full strength with the batting maestro Andrew Gonsalves and Prashad Mahadeo. Their bowling will be led by Murph Seeram and Chris.

United Stars has being playing good solid cricket had some problem with their opening batting position but is getting the runs from their middle order. United Star will need a big game from their skipper Ravin Ivan who had some good scores in the qualifying rounds. Their bowling will be shared between Samaroo, Ramoutar, Kayoon, Ivan and the Pahalad brothers Bobby and Bhola.

Royal Challenger Will Try Again
By James Persaud
Royal Challengers are in the playoffs again for the third straight competition; this team seems to have a problem with the playoffs. They would reach the playoffs and can’t get past the quarter finals, in the first competition they enter the playoffs undefeated and once again they find themselves in the same position. Royal Challenger manager Bobby Persaud will need a big game from his skipper and all rounder Krishna Persaud. Krishna is coming into this game with some big scores and will need a good bowling performance from Rohit, Rohan and Shameer.

Unity will try to get their act together and put a win in their pocket. Unity has played good cricket all season but seems to fail at the wrong time and skipper Vibert McLennon will be rooting for his players to put on a good show this Sunday.

Flasherz will take on Soldier Boys in the quarter finals, Flasherz is playing very good cricket at present. Team manager Abdool Punai will be looking for an explosive performance from his skipper and all rounder Rocco Dindayal. Dindayal is having an all star season with both bat and ball; he will have the support of Randy Narayan, Kumar, Dharampal, Sookwah, Vick and Vickram. Soldier Boys will need to have some big score from their captain Roopchand Persaud and Beta Ramdin to get past Flasherz.

Lions through to the playoffs again and will take on Ozone XI in the first round. Lion’s manager Sase Radhay will need to get his guys to make an extra efforts if he is to get past Ozone XI. Ozone XI has being playing very competitive cricket the team weakness is their fielding they make too many mistakes on the field causing them to give up easy runs.

In the other game in this division Apollo XI will play Invaders, Apollo XI will be counting on Trini and Omesh to bowl them into the semi final. But this would not be easy against the surging Invaders. Invaders won their last three games easily with good performances from the Drickpaul brothers Anand and Paul. While the Valladares brothers Winston, Paul and George did their part with the bat and ball.

Falcons In Dominating Form
By James Persaud
Falcons suffer a big loss to T Bros Superstars in the last competition semi finals, on that day two drop catches was all the chance that T Bros Superstars needed to sink Falcons. Falcon’s manager Richard Singh has regrouped his guys and they are coming of a big win last Sunday that eliminate their menace Young Brothers. Falcons will look for runs from Tiwari, Safraz, Navin and all rounder Vick Ramnarine.
Buccaneers will bring plenty experience to the game and they will need an all round performance from all their players to get past the young Falcons.

Better Hope B will take on Volcano in the second game of this division. These two teams met in the qualifying rounds and Better Hope B was the winner, this time round Volcano will be looking for a better outcome. Ken Mangra who will be bowling to boys who are one third the age of himself, but Ken uses his cricket knowledge to dominate his opponents with his spin bowling. The Better Hope B team has batting down to the end and is led by Singh, Ramroop, Aproo, Sanichar and Mahabir. Volcano played their best cricket in the middle of summer and as the temperature falls so was the score from their batsman. Volcano skipper Shawn will need to get some runs again and will be looking for support from Robin, Jitlall and Besham.

The Next Generation is playing in the league for the first time, moving from another league to NYSCL. They dominate the division in the earlier games and loss a big game to Young Warrior last Sunday. Next Generation has very good bowling at the top; their first three bowlers could do enough damage to upset any team. PM Youth has found form in the last three weeks and won all their games, they will be looking to continue their winning streak.

Crown XI will play Young Warrior, both of these teams had to wait until the last week to win and secure a spot in the playoffs. Crown XI a team from the Bronx won the third place prize in the 25 over Championship and would very much like to win the big prize this time around. Both teams are equally matched and this could be a close game. Crown XI will counting on Williams, Melram, Daniram, Harrichand and Singh for runs and the bowling will be spearheaded by Gafoor and Beharri. Young Warriors will depend on their all rounder Suresh, Dara Mangal, Jaikaran, Mitch, Gobin and Sarwan to take them to the semi final.