Triple Crown Thwarted – Corriverton 20/20 Champions

By Darshan Chickery
On this day, Dynasty was supposed to ‘come full circle’ and let the world know that they are the king of softball cricket in New York. Instead, they folded to a team that did not even exist this time last year – Corriverton. Cor-ri-va-who? Yes, Corriverton upset Dynasty yesterday in convincing fashion with a twenty nine run margin of victory at Dr. Charles Drew Park in the WISA 20/20 championship.

The victorious Corriverton team poses with winnings.

Corriverton won the toss and elected to bat first. A feat Dynasty would have more than happy to have achieved. In the last encounter between these two teams, Corriverton won the toss and batted first but lost the game to Dynasty who crawled home with one wicket to spare in a low scoring affair.

Corriverton’s Ahmad Shazaman and Cliflee Valaidum took the crease at 12:50pm against an already formidable Dynasty bowling attack which added J. Hemraj after their 30 Over championship. Looking to get a good start, Corriverton’s openers needed to ‘stave off’ the opening duo of Vish Persaud and Vicky Subkaran. Corriverton got what they needed – a good start of 53 for 1 after 10 overs but not what they wanted when Velaidum was comprehensively bowled by Persaud with the fifth ball of the innings without scoring.

With nine wickets in hand after the break, Corriverton was poised to put a competitive score on the board. Shazaman and Vijay Lutchman came out and immediately tried to move things along with some aggressive running between the wickets. That strategy backfired immediately when Vijay was run out for a well played 26 in the 11th over. The score was 54 for 2.

Ravi Rambarak joined skipper Shazaman and they put on 23 for the third wicket before Rambarak was bowled by Moe Khan for 9 in the 15th over. At 80 for 3 at the end of the 15th over, Dynasty needed wickets and Corriverton obviously needed runs.

Dynasty conceded 54 runs in the last five over while Corriverton lost only two wickets. Shazaman’s 63 ball unbeaten 49 was the highlight of Corriverton’s inning. He was supported at the end by Ravi Lutchman’s 19. Dynasty’s Vish Persaud, Vicky Subkaran and Moe Khan bowled well with figures of 4-1-21-1, 4-1-15-1 and 4-0-18-1 respectively.

Asked to score almost 7 an over, Dynasty made an uncharacteristic move by opening the batting without their regular pair of Majid Khan and Nyan Rudra. Instead, Majid and Vish Persaud opened the batting. After an un-eventful first over, Majid hold out to Joe Persaud off Shazaman’ second delivery. Shazaman  struck again when Persaud was caught at point by Vin Budhoo. Dynasty was in dire trouble at 7 for 2. Malipal and Gobin Narine took the score to 18  before Gobin became Shazaman’s third victim.
Dynasty needed runs quickly. At the same time, they also had to preserve their wickets. They did neither. Vicky Subkaran (1) fell to Joe Persaud with the score at 21. Ricky Narine and Malipal added 20 before Malipal went for 18 in the 10 over. The score was 45 for 5 off ten overs.

Needing 90 runs from ten overs and five wickets in hand, Dynasty needed a miracle to achieve victory and with that, a Triple Crown in 2010. Corriverton was not content on playing spoilers only. They were convinced that they can beat Dynasty. After all, they games between these two teams during the year were close.

Dynasty almost got the miracle they needed. After being 64 for 8 in the 14th over, Moe Khan and J. Hemraj added 35 run in three overs with some lofty hitting. That partnership was done in by a terrible mix-up that cost Khan his wicket via the run out route for a valiant 26. Corriverton wrapped up the game when Hemraj hold out to Velaidum at long-off off Ravi Lutchman for 19.

All of Corriverton’s bowlers took at least one wicket. Their most successful bowler was skipper Ahmad Shazaman with 3 for 17 from four overs.

A presentation and picture ‘op’ followed the game. Shazaman stole the show with trophies for best batsman, best bowler and Man of the Match. Oh and he even got to christen the winning trophy.

Corriverton would tell you that they beat Dynasty fair and square. And they did. Did Dynasty hand it to Corriverton? Did dropping Shazaman at 2 off Persaud and 29 off Hemraj cost them the game? Or was it not using their regular opening pair? Was it because their skipper Khemraj (Buns) Narine was not available? Did Dynasty panic? Or, was it because Shazaman push all the buttons exactly when he needed to? Send your comments.