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By Peter Della Penna

York University (Toronto) swept through the final day just as they had in group play throughout the tournament, dominating the competition to finish as undefeated tournament champions, beating University of South Florida in the first semifinal of the day before crushing York College (NY) in the final to become the winner of the 2010 American College Cricket Spring Break Championship. YU left-handed opener Jai Patel was named the finals MVP after a superb day, beginning with 53 against USF before scoring 48 against York College.

ACC SBC Semi Final: Jai Patel & Raza Rahman from York University from Peter Della Penna on Vimeo.

“It’s great, I can’t explain it,” said Mahjuj Jasim Sourav, captain of York University. “It’s been such a long journey, organizing the whole team and coming here and actually winning this. It’s really big. I can’t explain it actually.”

USF won the toss and elected to bat first against YU. The game was scheduled to start at 10 am inside the stadium at Central Broward Regional Park, but was delayed 14 minutes because the tournament organizers did not want the match to begin until the camera crew filming the game for a live UStream webcast had worked out some last minute technical difficulties. At the start of the first semi final match, the much hyped tournament had only 8 people in attendance inside the stadium.

USF got off to a super start behind 57 from Saisitaram Ramesh. He put on 81 runs for the first wicket with Nirav Shah, but foolishly threw his wicket away when it looked like he could have easily scored a century. Ramesh had nine fours, but chipped a full ball from medium pacer Chirag Shah straight down Raza Rahman’s throat just inside the long off boundary and Ramesh walked off the field banging his helmet.

The next highest partnership in the innings was the final unbroken 8th wicket stand of 24 runs as USF’s momentum grinded to a halt afterward. Rahman took a brilliant diving catch at point to dismiss the dangerous number three man Harsha Boddepalli for only 4 runs as Shah took his second. Boddepalli was given an award as the tournament’s Best Batsman, but did not fire against York and no one did after him.

Still, USF posted a competitive 141 for 7 in 20 overs. Patel though made clear he was going to put his stamp on the game. In the third over, captain Boddepalli was bowling his right arm medium pace and on the first four balls of the over, Patel cranked him for four. The first three balls were all short and pulled onto the leg side while the last was short and outside off, getting slapped over mid off.

“It was a batting track,” said Patel. “The ball was coming on. I just played my natural game.”

ACC SBC Final: Mahjuj Jasim Sourav from York University from Peter Della Penna on Vimeo.

The sequence left USF shellshocked in the field as their captain and best player had just been carved into pieces. After Saad Zafar was run out, Patel teamed up with Khushro Wadia for more damage, carting Nirav Shah’s medium pace for 15 runs in the 6th over to make it 53 for 1.

From there, York eased up on the gas pedal and cruised to the target with two balls to spare. Rahman came to the crease after Patel was bowled by spinner Dhir Shah and scored 44 not out to close out the match and put York into the final where they awaited the winner of the second semifinal between York College and UMBC.

York College won the toss and elected to bat first. YC was in a hole very early on as star opener Akeem Dodson was out for only 7 to make it 15 for 1. Dodson pulled a short ball from Faisal Maniar towards square leg and Austin Aluvathingal reached to his left to knife the ball out of the air one handed. On the very next delivery, Maniar bowled Mohit Chopra with a full and straight ball to put himself on a hat trick but wasted the opportunity by bowling a wide to Hugo D’Oliveira.

ACC SBC Semi Final: Hugo D'Oliveira from York College from Peter Della Penna on Vimeo.

Rather than try and consolidate, former NY Region U-19 player D’Oliveira went on the counterattack and blitzed the UMBC bowlers to the tune of 51 runs with six fours and two sixes in his knock which came off 26 balls. At the other end, he wasn’t getting much support though and after Bilal Shahid fell to Maniar, Rikin Parikh came on to bowl off spin and before long was on a hat trick of his own as he bowled Abbas Khizar and Shamas Rahman back-to-back. Just like Maniar before him though, Parikh’s hat trick ball was wasted as he bowled a waist high full toss that was belted over midwicket for six by Yasin Khan.

D’Oliveira finally fell in somewhat controversial fashion as he appeared to hit a full delivery into the ground with a bottom edge for a bump ball. The ball then carried through to the keeper, who appealed for a caught behind. Both umpires consulted and after a delay D’Oliveira was given out to make it 107 for 6 in 14 overs.

Parikh struck again to remove both Yasin and Dilawar Khan as he finished with 4 for 21. York College finished 132 all out in 20 overs as Mahendra Jagroop was bowled by Gurvish Singh off the final ball of the innings.

UMBC started off the chase very methodically and never really got the burst they needed to chase down what should have been a simple target. Whereas York College ran superbly between the wickets to turn ones into twos and twos into threes, UMBC’s batsmen had a much more conservative approach.

UMBC lost their first wicket at 14 on the last ball of the third over when Eraj Raza was caught behind by Dodson off of Yasin Khan’s medium pace. Three balls later, UMBC suffered a terrible blow when number three batsman Anand Patel was run out without facing a ball. Captain Sumeet Chordiya was on strike and pushed one into the covers straight to D’Oliveira. There was no run there, but both men took off and D’Oliveira fired a sharp throw to Dodson over the stumps with Patel well short when the bails came off.

Chordiya made amends by scoring 60 and formed a big 86-run partnership for the third wicket with Ananth Ranga, but halfway through each player’s innings, they seemed exhausted and could no longer run hard at all between the wickets. Chordiya scored his runs in 64 balls and Ranga scored 32 in 33 as Chordiya admitted afterwards that their fitness standards were nowhere near what they needed to be able to last the whole five days of the tournament.

ACC SBC Semi Final: Sumeet Chordiya from UMBC from Peter Della Penna on Vimeo.

“We were going well, but we both ran out of the gas,” said Chordiya. “One of us should have accelerated and it didn’t happen. After getting set, Ranga, he couldn’t run much and by the time he got out towards the end, I was not able to run. We lacked fitness to finish up the game and that’s the reason. We couldn’t convert the twos into threes, especially with this big ground we should have done that.”

Dodson took off the wicketkeeping pads and gloves at the start of the 15th over with D’Oliveira taking over behind the stumps and on the first ball of the 17th over, Dodson bowled Ranga to break the partnership as Ranga played a very tired cross batted heave and missed everything. Seven runs later on the second ball of the 19th over, Dodson removed Chordiya and the match was slipping faster and faster away.

Heading into the last over, UMBC needed 19 to win. The over started with Yasin Khan bowling two wides and giving up a four to put some spirit back into UMBC’s camp as they now needed 13 in 5 balls, but it was false hope as clever changes of pace kept Gurnish Singh and Beenish Bhatia from connecting well. Dodson iced the match by running out Singh on the final ball as York College won by 7 runs putting them in the final against York University.

York College’s achievement was even more noteworthy in a tournament dominated by international students as they were the only American college or university team whose entire 12-man squad was made up of US citizens or permanent residents, proving that good cricket talent can be cultivated in the United States.

In the final, York University won the toss and batted first, giving Patel a chance to pick up where he left off against USF. Patel teamed up with Wadia opening the match to put on 76 runs for the first wicket. Patel was on 48 when he went for a big drive to a full ball outside off stump from D’Oliveira. The ball took the edge and Dodson behind the stumps made a phenomenal one handed diving catch to his left to snag it, breaking the stand.

Wadia was then joined by Rahman and both men continued to romp, taking advantage of some horrendous fielding by York College. The Queens, NY squad let themselves down badly in the catching department, grassing no less than six chances in the field. Rahman benefitted most after being dropped on 12 to finish with 35 before being caught on the long on boundary by Dodson trying to smash a six off Dilawar Khan.

York University finished with 163 for 6 in 20 overs as captain Mohammad Suleman of York College took three wickets in the final over and should have had a fourth had there not been a drop on the midwicket boundary by Khizar. Wadia was the man dropped, but was run out on the relay throw for 54 to top score for York University.

The chase was always going to be difficult and much of it depended on how long Dodson could stay at the crease. But after reaching 19, he drove a full ball from YU captain Sourav slightly uppishly towards Hassan Choghtai at cover, who pulled off another brilliant catch diving to his left to snag it before it hit the ground.

The top order collapsed afterwards and at one point, Sourav was on a hat trick after claiming D’Oliveira and Khizar, but the hat trick ball to Shamas Rahman was left alone just outside off stump. The damage was done though and York College was effectively finished at 35 for 4 in the 5th over.

After Sourav’s burst, he put three slips and a gully in place for the next few overs while the pacemen were on to keep up the pressure. Choghtai then took two wickets with his medium pace along with two from legspinner Faiyaz Chowdhury and one from paceman Mohammad Zubair Zia.

The score was 90 for 9 after 19 overs when the tower floodlights were turned off at the stadium. According to a source at the ground, the organizers paid to use the floodlights for two hours and the organizers requested that the lights be turned on at 6:30 pm. A two hour timer was set and at 8:30 pm on the button, the lights turned off with the players about to start the final over. After a few minutes of confusion to figure out whether or not the lights could be turned back on to complete the final over, the players walked off the field and York University was declared the champion.

Post Tournament Interview with ACC President Lloyd Jodah from Peter Della Penna on Vimeo.

American College Cricket President Lloyd Jodah held the Post Tournament Ceremony inside the pavilion and announced Ramesh from South Florida as the Best Bowler of the group stage of the tournament while his teammate Boddepalli was named the Best Batsman. Dodson was named the MVP of the group stage. YU’s Patel took home a Best Batsman award for the final day in addition to his MVP award Sourav was named the Best Bowler of the final day.

ACC SBC Tournament Trophy Presentation from Peter Della Penna on Vimeo.