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By Peter Della Penna
A gritty allround performance by captain Neil McGarrell took
Atlantic to a 2-wicket win over South West while North West’s lineup
torched New York’s bowling attack on their way to a 136-run win on
Friday at Central Broward Regional Park in Lauderhill, Fla., on day one
of the 2010 USACA Senior Nationals.
In the match played on the stadium natural turf wicket, South West
won the toss and elected to bat first against Atlantic, but were
immediately behind the eight-ball when opener Kanishka Chaugai was
caught behind off Jermaine Lawson on the second ball of the match.
After bowling four wides in his first over, Imran Awan settled
down to bowl a terrific spell, snaring the wickets of Theo Mavrokefalos
for 8 and captain Mehul Dave for 5 to keep South West pinned down at 35
for 3 in the eighth over. Awan finished with 2 for 20 in six overs.
George Adams was also responsible for claiming two vital wickets
in the innings. First he dismissed Ravi Timbawala for 35 as the opener
played onto his stumps trying to cut a delivery. Then Adams took care
of Aditya Thyagarajan, trapping the star batsman on the crease for 9
and Atlantic had South West in even bigger trouble at 75 for 5 in the 19th over.
Timil Patel and Ritesh Kadu did their best to resurrect the
innings and constructed a 58-run stand for the sixth wicket to get
South West back into the game. Muhammad Ghous finally broke the
partnership by bowling Patel for 22 and that sparked the final collapse
from South West.
Kadu fell next for 29 to left arm spinner Muhammad Nisar. Elmore
Hutchinson was clean bowled by Lawson for 13 before Hammad Shahid and
Abhemanyu Rajp were dismissed by McGarrell in the 46th over to wrap up South West’s innings for 159. Mrunal Patel finished not out on 9.
Atlantic’s modest batting lineup was weakened even more with the
absence of Clain Williams, who has not arrived yet for the tournament.
But they used a positive approach at the top with Charan Singh and
Aditya Mishra to get the chase started on the right foot. Singh
routinely played through the air and found the gaps on his way to 24 in
29 balls. He was finally dismissed by the leg-spin of Timil Patel, who
kept South West’s hopes alive by taking 4 for 32.
Rajp then broke through with the wicket of Sean Stanislaus, LBW
for 3 to make it 51 for 2. Kunal Baride fought hard to stay at the
crease and give Mishra support, forging a 28-run stand before he was
stumped for 8 by Kadu off the bowling of Timil Patel after
overbalancing on an attempted drive. Patel struck again five balls
later, getting Ghous to produce an edge to first slip and the see-saw
battle waged on at 79 for 4.
Mishra eventually succumbed to muscle cramps and needed a runner.
A short time later, he succumbed to the bowling of Rajp, LBW for 36. In
Rajp’s next over, he had Durale Forest trapped on the crease for a
third ball duck and at 96 for 6 in the 29th over, South West looked moments away from wrapping up the game.
However, captain McGarrell carried his team to victory by scoring
42 not out, teaming up with Lawson for a critical 54-run partnership in
the process. Lawson finally suffered a rush of blood to the head and
holed out to long on to give Timil Patel his fourth when only 10 were
needed to win. Adams was run out with the scores level, but Awan came
in and on his first delivery, a wide was sent down leg side, the 27
th by South West, to end the game.
“There was a lot of pressure up front knowing that we were missing
a couple of batsmen, but in the end it was just a matter of somebody
putting a hand up and playing through the innings,” said Mishra. “I
tried to do that but sadly due to a cramp it didn’t work out. But I
think Neil stepped up and what a knock he played.”
Image: Atlantic Region captain Neil McGarrell.
On the artificial field outside the stadium, North West unleashed
a ferocious batting assault on New York’s vaunted bowling attack,
scoring 310 for 7 in their 50 overs to set the platform for a
resounding victory. Rishi Bharadwaj top scored with 77 as he and his
teammates torched the Big Apple bowlers for nine sixes.
“I think the way we played cricket today as a team, a hungrier
team than New York, I totally think we deserved the win,” said North
West vice-captain Saurabh Verma. “I think people are going to step up
and take notice of the region and of the players who are playing in the
region now.”
Even without the services of Kevin Darlington, New York’s attack
boasted two former first-class players and a current USA national team
weapon, but no one was spared by the lineup comprised of players from
the San Francisco Bay Area, Portland and Seattle.
In reply, New York lost wickets at regular intervals as their
biggest partnership went for 41 runs. Carl Wright top scored for New
York with 45 in the chase, but realistically they were never in it and
they were finally bowled out in the 37th over for 174. Saqib Saleem finished with 3 for 30 as spin bowlers were responsible for six of the 10 New York wickets to fall.
On Saturday, New York and South West will square off inside the
stadium on the natural turf wicket as both teams aim to notch their
first win of the tournament. Meanwhile, North West and Atlantic will
duke it out on the artificial wicket to see who can remain unbeaten
heading into Sunday. Matches are now scheduled for a 9:30 AM start.
USACA Senior Nationals
Official Scorecard
Atlantic vs. South West
Atlantic won by 2 wickets
South West won the toss and elected to bat
South West Innings
Batsman Runs Balls 4s 6s Dismissal
K Chaugai 0 2 0 0 ct Stanislaus+ b Lawson
R Timbawala 35 60 4 0 b Adams
D Mavrokefalos 8 14 1 0 LBW Awan
M Dave* 5 11 1 0 b Awan
A Thyagarajan 9 23 1 0 LBW Adams
T Patel 22 46 1 0 b Ghous
R Kadu+ 29 70 1 0 ct Awan b Nisar
M Patel 9 22 1 0 not out
E Hutchinson 13 23 1 1 b Lawson
H Shahid 1 6 0 0 LBW McGarrell
A Rajp 0 1 0 0 LBW McGarrell
Extras 28 (3 no balls, 4 byes, 5 leg byes, 16 wides)
Team Total 159 all out in 46 overs
Fall of Wicket: 0/1 (Chaugai), 17/2 (Mavrokefalos), 35/3 (Dave),
73/4 (Timbawala), 75/5 (Thyagarajan), 133/6 (T Patel), 135/7 (Kadu),
158/8 (Hutchinson), 159/9 (Shahid), 159/10 (Rajp).
Atlantic Bowling Overs-Maidens-Runs-Wickets
J Lawson 8-1-43-2
I Awan 6-0-20-2
G Adams 8-0-23-2
N McGarrell 7-1-12-2
M Nisar 10-0-29-1
M Ghous 7-2-23-1
Atlantic Innings
Batsman Runs Balls 4s 6s Dismissal
C Singh 24 29 5 0 ct Rajp b T Patel
A Mishra 36 69 1 1 LBW Rajp
S Stanislaus+ 3 12 0 0 LBW Rajp
K Baride 8 35 1 0 st Kadu+ b T Patel
M Ghous 0 5 0 0 ct Dave b T Patel
N McGarrell* 42 69 4 0 not out
D Forest 0 3 0 0 LBW Rajp
J Lawson 12 39 0 0 ct M Patel b T Patel
G Adams 5 6 0 0 runout (T Patel/Kadu+)
I Awan 0 0 0 0 not out
Extras 30 (2 no balls, 0 bye, 1 leg bye, 27 wides)
Team Total 160 for 8 in 44.3 overs
Did not bat: M Nisar.
Fall of Wicket: 31/1 (Singh), 51/2 (Stanislaus), 79/3 (Baride),
79/4 (Ghous), 93/5 (Mishra), 96/6 (Forest), 150/7 (Lawson), 159/8
(Adams).
South West Bowling Overs-Maidens-Runs-Wickets
E Hutchinson 5-0-19-0
M Dave 10-0-31-0
T Patel 10-1-32-4
H Shahid 3-0-15-0
A Rajp 9-0-31-3
M Patel 5-1-20-0
A Thyagarajan 2.3-0-11-0
Unofficial Scorecard
New York vs. North West
North West won by 136 runs
North West won the toss and elected to bat
North West Innings
Batsman Runs 4s 6s Dismissal
N Mustafa*+ 8 1 0 b Gordon
S Singh 26 0 2 b Thomas
R Bharadwaj 77 5 2 ct Gordon b Evans
J Crosthwaite 48 5 2 ct Marshall b Smith
S Santhanam 6 1 0 ct Thomas b Sanford
A Thyagarajan 45 5 1 b Evans
S Divekar 32 4 1 not out
S Saleem 19 1 1 ct Wright b Thomas
S Verma 8 2 0 not out
Extras 41
Team Total 310 for 7 in 50 overs
Did not bat: S Shah, B Khan.
New York Bowling Overs-Maidens-Runs-Wickets
A Sanford 7-0-47-1
D Thomas 8-0-38-2
A Gordon 6-0-37-1
R Marshall 1-0-13-0
S Massiah 10-0-69-0
D Smith 10-1-52-1
D Evans 8-0-35-2
New York Innings
Batsman Runs 4s 6s Dismissal
D Evans 18 3 0 ct S Singh b Santhanam
G Hall 25 4 0 ct Verma b Divekar
S Massiah* 6 1 0 ct Mustafa+ b Santhanam
C Wright 45 4 2 ct Thyagarajan b Verma
R Marshall 9 2 0 ct Bharadwaj b Shah
A Mohammed 38 3 1 ct & b Saleem
A Dodson+ 6 1 0 ct Shah b Saleem
D Thomas 6 1 0 runout
D Smith 3 0 0 ct Mustafa+ b Verma
A Sanford 2 0 0 ct Mustafa+ b Saleem
A Gordon 0 0 0 not out
Extras 16
Team Total 174 all out in 36.3 overs
North West Bowling Overs-Maidens-Runs-Wickets
B Khan 6-1-33-0
S Santhanam 7-1-26-2
S Shah 7-0-25-1
S Divekar 3-0-19-1
S Verma 8-1-35-2
S Saleem 5.3-0-30-3