By Michael Makin

Michigan Cricket Academy was victorious in its own Memorial Day Weekend Tournament, 2010, emerging top on net-run-rate after a three-way-tie for first place between the hosts, Great Lakes Cricket Conference Colts (the runners-up), and the Michigan Cricket Association Colts, with a very young Chicago Combined team, captained by tournament MVP Srijay Kumar, fighting valiantly throughout the weekend, but eventually occupying fourth place.  GLCC’s captain, Salman Ahmed, won the Best Bowler award, while MCA’s Jai Nirban was Best Batsman.

Pic (Above): Michigan Cricket Academy - Winners of the Memorial Day Weekend Tournament [Courtesy: MCA]

The round-robin tournament, played primarily at U-19 level, with teams allowed to field up to four U-21 players (although, in fact, both Chicago and MCA had significant numbers of U-15s and U-13s in their squads), entered the final day with every team in with a chance of a trophy: MichCA had beaten both GLCC and Chicago on the opening day, and could be champions with a defeat of MCA; GLCC had recovered from a rather lethargic defeat to MichCA to beat the hosts on Saturday afternoon, and had a chance of either the runners-up or winners trophies, as did MCA, which had beaten Chicago handily and lost narrowly to GLCC on Saturday, while Chicago, although winless, could still get its hands on a trophy if it could beat GLCC on Sunday.

SUNDAY’S MATCHES

Sunday’s Chicago-GLCC match was played at Bloomer Park, Rochester Hills, and, with the out-of-towners now strengthened by two senior men (Fahad and Moin Barbar) who had been unavailable on Saturday, a close contest looked likely.  GLCC, batting first, made 150/9 off the regulation 30 overs, with the key contributions coming from Naeem (29) and Wasim Patel (a sterling 56 not out, and the third half-century of the tournament). Chicago’s opening bowlers played a leading role for the visitors, Moin taking 3/27 and the captain Srijay 2/19.  Chicago must have thought the target more than within reach of a strengthened batting line-up, but when Fahad, Parth, and Vybhav all fell within six overs, with less than fifteen on the board, it was clear that the visitors were bound to struggle.  Only Srijay offered real resistance, his fighting 23 ended by opposing captain Salman, who had him caught for 23, one of four wickets taken by the GLCC skipper.  Chicago were all out for 92 in 29.1 overs.

Meanwhile, at Lyon Oaks Park, MCA played MichCA in a new edition of a familiar rivalry.  MCA, led by eighteen-year-old Kishan Patel, won the toss and elected to bat, with the skipper unworried by the morning dew.  He instructed his openers, fourteen-year-old Gordon Makin and fifteen-year-old Ani Mayasandra, that their job was to stay in, and see off the new ball, hoping to neutralize the threat of MichCA’s star all-rounder Taimoor Ahmed, who had played a key role in MichCA’s two victories the day before.  Gordon and Ani did their captain’s bidding, with an opening partnership of 48, which provided the foundation for a final score of 153/8 in thirty overs.  Gordon batted 21 overs for a patient 30, before falling to a slower ball from Haris Ahmed (another of the tournament’s top bowlers), while quick knocks from Kishan and Dhwanit Patel contributed 15 each, and Jai Nirban played his usual role for the weekend by taking the attack to the MichCA bowlers and scoring a rapid 31.  Haris took the key wickets of Gordon and Jai, but MCA lost only Deepak to Taimoor, late in the innings.  MCA also managed, late in the innings, to rattle MichCA in the field, just as MichCA had done the day before to GLCC — the hosts reached their final score with a run five off the last ball.  

In reply, keeper Hamza Ansari (who had an excellent all-round tournament) and Ali built a good base for MichCA in a solid opening stand, with Hamza lasting into the final overs before falling for a careful 21 to Gordon, who turned one and had Hamza play on.  However, earlier, when Taimoor fell, caught behind by Anurag Yerabati, to Jeet, for only 13, MCA began to feel confident (knowing that Taimoor’s team

included among the lower-order batsmen several players with little experience of the hard-ball game). When Jeet dismissed Haris in exactly the same way with the next ball, the hosts could not contain their delight, and Kishan Patel, whose vocal and often witty leadership on the field kept his team energized throughout the innings, later identified those two balls as the keys to MCA’s victory.  Like Hamza, Deepa (19) offered stout resistance, and, like Hamza, he fell late to Gordon’s leg spin, caught and bowled.  Once the two of them were out, the lower order crumbled, and MichCA were all out for 116 in 26.4 overs.  MichCA, under the excellent captaincy of Taimoor, who had a very fine all-round tournament, must have felt desperately unlucky that Sunday’s loss moved them from first place to third, but MCA had done its job. 

Senior MichCA umpire (and distinguished first-class cricketer) V. V. Giri chose Gordon Makin as his man-of-the-match, “not for his runs, not for his wickets, but for his patience”.

MCA and MichCA left Lyon Oaks for Sunday’s closing ceremony at Bloomer Park with only a vague sense of who might get a hand on which trophy, and so there was much delight in the MCA motorcade when the news came through that the hosts’ net run rate put them well ahead of the two other teams with two victories.

[A more detailed report covering all matches is available here.]