Midwest Cricket Conference:  Winner of the USACA Central East Regional Tournament

(July 18-19, 2009)

By Sadiq Yusuf

The annual Central-East Regional cricket tournament - an inter-league championship, and the single most important cricketing tourney across the entire midwestern states (Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Michigan, Kansas), was played at the Washington Park grounds in Chicago this year. And, for the second consecutive year, the Midwest Cricket Conference beat Chicago-based International Cricket Management League in the finals, making it back-to-back titles for this 50-team league.

Last season MCC had won the title with relative ease in Detroit, winning the finals by almost 200 runs.This year, however, in a tournament MCC hosted and one which was played on their home ground, the final turned into quite an exciting contest before the superior depth of MCC prevailed. In the end MCC won the big moments of the contest - a 13-over burst in the middle of the game, led by Laxmikumar Rajaramchandran and Kamran Syed with the bat, and Shahid Munir and Mehul Shani with the ball proved decisive.

In the 30-over final, MCC batted first and were immediately in trouble - facing 2 new ICML pace recruits who have recently moved to the area, in USA-national-team speedster Usman Shuja and Akhil Pathan. MCC slipped early to 11/2 and 30/3, and by the mid-way break were down at 70/6, before the first of their fightbacks began - spinner Asif Mehmood and wicket-keeper-batsman Ashhar Mehdi put together a fighting 40-run stand to bring MCC back into the game.

The return to the attack of Usman Shuja saw the breakthrough however, and a further slide put MCC in trouble once again. At 125/9 in 25 overs, with only 5 overs left, the situation looked grim - but this was where the immense depth of talent in the Midwest Cricket Conference came to the fore. Batting at #10 was Laxmikuma Rajaramchandran, who has 8 centuries to his name in the league over the years; and batting at last-man was Kamran Syed, one of the most feared batsmen in the league.

Faced with 125/9, the two proceeded to launch a thrilling counter-attack that took the game away from ICML. Laxmi started proceedings by hitting the young off-spinner Talha for 18 in one over, and Kamran followed by hitting a six and a four in the final over of the innings - that magnificent six in particular was truly memorable, launched over cover off the fast bowler, and clearly the shot of the day. When yet another Kamran hit over midwicket sailed for four to signal the end of the innings, the heroic last-wicket-pair had not just helped MCC recover, but had instead put them in a dominant position. They had added an incredible 52 runs in the last 5 overs, to pull MCC from 125/9 in 25 overs to 177/9 in 30 overs. "We were a little worried at this point", said manager Tariq Ahmad later, "because the runs were not coming easily. But all credit must go to Laxmi and Kamran, for not just staying there but also continuing to score runs quickly at the end". Laxmi ended undefeated on 29, Kamran on 22.

With ICML having taken too long to bowl their 30 overs, they were penalized 4 overs and thus had only 26 overs for the chase. MCC began the attack with their dream-combination - USA-national-speedster Shahid Munir with his raw pace and dangerous bounce, and left-arm-pacer Mehul Shani with his devastating swing and deceptive changes of speed. And the two best pacemen in the league proceeded to hammer the nails into the coffin of the match, as it were. They bowled 4 overs each - and after 8 overs ICML was 26/7, and the game was over as a contest. Shahid claimed 4 wickets in his 4 overs at one end, including 2 quite spectacular clean-bowleds of the opener and the #3 batsman. Meanwhile at the other end Mehul claimed 3 wickets in his 4 overs - an inswinging LBW, followed by 2 changes of pace that had the batsmen groping and caught. It was a spectacular display, two great pacemen in tandem, their inspired jugalbandi leaving the opposition reeling.

MCC seemed to step off the throttle a bit after this, and to its credit ICML's tailenders batted very well and fought hard, eventually carrying their side all the way to 120 - a 50-run margin of victory in the end.

Early Round Action

Earlier, both MCC and ICML had made it through to the finals with perfect 2-0 records, fashioned against leagues from Michigan and Minnesota.

MCC's first contest in the tournament resulted in a quick and convincing win over Minnesota Cricket Association. Two early wickets from Mehul, and a spectacular spell of 5/8 (including a hat-trick) by Mohammad Yousuf bowled Minnesota out for only 77. MCC lost 3 wickets in the chase, but a solid 37 not out from Amit Kumar and 16 not out from Laxmi made certain there were no alarms, as MCC cruised to a 7-wicket win.

In their second game (on the same day), MCC took on and easily defeated Michigan Cricket Association. This time MCC batted first - and a rapid-fire 40 from Faisal, followed by the usual calm and solid 61 from Amit Kumar put MCC in a strong position. Wicketkeeper-batsman Ashhar Mehdi then launched a blistering attack at the end, smashing a brutal 80 - and MCC ended up their innings with a massive 238/4 in 30
overs. With a huge score on the board, the MCC spinners then did the damage - 4/10 for Laxmikumar and 3/16 for Mohd. Tayyab sent Michigan packing for only 70, and sent MCC into the finals on a high.

In the other side of the draw, meanwhile, ICML was sailing through with ease as well, led by their captain Usman Shuja. They beat Great Lakes Cricket Conference (from Michigan) in their first game, first with 2 wickets from Shuja, and then chasing down 130 easily with the help of a 40 from young Abhijit Joshi, the USA Under-19 opening batsman. In their second game ICML scored 130 again, with a fifty from Yasir Jamshed - and 2 more wickets from Shuja led them to the win against Minnesota Cricket Assocation by 20 runs, putting them into the finals against Midwest Cricket Conference.

Prize winning performances

At the end of the tournament, a prize-distribution ceremony was held where MCC's captain Sohail and manager Tariq (who received the now-traditional gatorade-bath from the jubilant MCC players) accepted the championship trophy.

Shahid Munir was named MVP of the finals, for his devasting burst of pace bowling at the start of the innings. "He showed everyone today why he is a USA player", said manager Tariq about Shahid's performance.

Wicket-keeper batsman Ashhar Mehdi took home the MVP of the tournament, for his work both in front of the stumps (80 against Michigan, and 40 in the finals), as well as behind them (an amazing 9 stumpings in the tournament).

The Best Bowler award went to Usman Shuja of ICML (and the USA national team), for his 8 wickets in the tournament.

Thus ended the Central-East Regional tournament, very well organized by MCC this year, with yeoman work done at the organization level by Humayun Baqai. This tournament is the first rung on the USA-cricket ladder - it will be followed by the Western Conference Championship (where Central-East Region will put up a team, to take on 3 other teams: Central-West - Texas and nearby; South-West - Los Angeles and nearby; and North-West - SanFrancisco, Seattle and nearby). That will then be followed by the US Nationals, where the top 2 teams from the Western Conference will meet their counterparts from the Eastern Conference, for the national title).