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By Peter Della Penna
A complete team effort from South West resulted in a total
annihilation of New York by 157 runs while the North West squeezed out
a tight win over Atlantic when the match was decided by scoring rate
after Atlantic’s chase was halted after 44 overs due to bad light on
Saturday at the USACA Senior Nationals in Lauderhill, Fla. It means
that North West has a chance to go undefeated with a win over South
West on Sunday inside the Central Broward Regional Park stadium while
New York tries to avoid going winless when they take on Atlantic on the
artificial pitch outside the stadium.
New York won the toss and elected to field on a perfect morning in
south Florida. Ricky Singh opened with Ritesh Kadu and they added 30
for the first wicket before Singh was bowled for 19 by Kevin
Darlington. Five runs later, Darlington had Ravi Timbawala LBW for 1
and New York looked to be establishing control of the match.
But Mrunal Patel joined Kadu at the crease and the two produced an
attritional 82-run stand for the third wicket that ate up 22 overs and
set the platform for the surge that followed in the final third of the
innings. New York captain Steve Massiah struggled to decide on a fifth
bowling option in an attempt to take wickets after using leg-spinner
Dwayne Smith for just one over. He eventually chose to bring himself on
in search of wickets and Patel was finally bowled by Massiah for 32 in
the 33rd over, but Patel’s contribution was just as vital as the next man in, Aditya Thyagarajan.
Kadu was dismissed a short time later by Adrian Gordon for 66 to make it 139 for 4 in the 37th
over, but vice-captain Thyagarajan and captain Mehul Dave teamed up to
devastate New York’s bowlers over the next ten frames. Thyagarajan
rotated the strike at will, opening the door for Dave to strike some
lusty blows. While Thyagarajan focused on finding singles, he didn’t
hesitate to dispatch anything loose to the boundary. The two men added
92 for the fifth wicket before Thyagarajan was caught behind off Gordon
for 63 in only 44 balls. He only had 10 deliveries he didn’t score off,
including the wicket. Meanwhile, Dave continued the onslaught for the
last few overs with Elmore Hutchinson there in support as South West
finished 251 for 6 with Dave 49 not out.
New York’s chase never got going as South West heaped the pressure
on in the field, showing far more desire to win than the reigning
national champions, a reign that has less than 24 hours remaining.
Dennis Evans was the first man to go, out for a duck when Hutchinson
took a splendid over the shoulder catch running back from point to give
Dave his first wicket. Hutchinson then clean bowled new man Rashard
Marshall for 4 to make it 14 for 2 and there was a growing sense in the
air that a rout was on the cards.
Dave dismissed Glen Hall for 8 when the batsman foolishly drove in
the air straight to sub fielder Theo Mavrokefalos stationed on the long
off boundary. Andy Mohammed was then caught by Timbawala at second slip
for a duck to give Hutchinson his second scalp and New York was
crumbling at 19 for 4.
Massiah joined Carl Wright and the run rate ground to a halt while
the men tried to rebuild. However, there did not appear to be any
serious intent to go for a win as too many balls were blocked instead
of trying to tap the ball into open spaces. They took 16 overs to add
37 runs before Wright was spectacularly caught by Thyagarajan on the
long on boundary off of Abhemanyu Rajp for New York’s top score of 20
to make it 56 for 5 in the 25th.
Immediately, New York collapsed into a heap as Massiah edged Nadir
Malik to slip for 15 and Smith was caught behind off Malik for a duck
to make it 56 for 7. Adam Sanford had a brief burst of three sixes off
Malik, but he was bowled for 18 by Rajp with the score on 77 and then
Denison Thomas gave a return catch to Timil Patel for 1 with New York
still on 77. The last wicket pair of Darlington and Gordon became a
nuisance for eight overs before Gordon was finally bowled for 9 by
Hutchinson and New York was all out for 94.
In a disappointing scene, several of New York’s players did not
stick around for the end of the match to shake hands with the
victorious South West team, including former USA national team member
Hall and current USA players Wright, Marshall and Massiah.
In the game played on the artificial wicket outside the stadium,
North West won the toss and elected to bat. Several players made
starts, but no one was able to go on and make a big score as Shantanu
Divekar led North West with 40 in their total of 212 before they were
bowled out on the first ball of the last over. Neil McGarrell once
again turned in a tremendous spell of left arm spin, taking 4 for 16 in
9.1 overs. The Atlantic captain was also responsible for two runouts in
the field.
It appeared that Atlantic’s performance at bat would stoop beneath
New York’s woes when they had three men out with only one run on the
board. Both openers, Charan Singh and Aditya Mishra, and the first drop
batsman Sean Stanislaus all got out without scoring. Kunal Baride
chipped in with 19, but it was McGarrell and Durale Forest who turned
the match upside down for Atlantic, putting on an unbroken 125-run
fifth wicket stand. Forest finished 66 not out and McGarrell 68 not
out, but bad light ended play with six overs to go and the score on 169.
According to the tournament playing conditions, average runs per
over is to be used to decide a winner when the full amount of overs can
not be bowled. Based on North West’s scoring rate of 4.24 runs per
over, Atlantic needed to have reached 188 by the end of the 44th
to have won. Initial protests were made that Duckworth-Lewis
calculations were not used, but according to a USACA official, even if
Duckworth-Lewis was used in this situation, Atlantic would have been
three runs below the par score and would have still lost.
Going into the final day, there exists a possibility for a
three-way tie for first place. If North West wins against South West,
they are the undisputed national champion. If North West loses, then a
two-way tie will be created at 2-1. If Atlantic also beats New York,
there would be a three-way tie for first. Net run rate is the
tiebreaker in both instances to decide the national champion.
Here are the unofficial net run rate calculations below heading into the final day.
Runs For Runs Against NRR
North West (2-0) 522 in 100 overs 343 in 94 overs +1.57
South West (1-1) 410 in 100 overs 254 in 94.3 overs +1.41
Atlantic (1-1) 329 in 88.3 overs 371 in 100 overs +.01
New York (0-2) 268 in 100 overs 561 in 100 overs -2.93
Official Scorecard
New York vs. South West
South West won by 157 runs
New York won the toss and elected to field
Man of the Match: Mehul Dave
South West Innings
Batsman Runs Balls 4s 6s Dismissal
R Singh 19 18 2 1 b Darlington
R Kadu+ 66 110 4 0 ct Sanford b Gordon
R Timbawala 1 12 0 0 LBW Darlington
M Patel 32 68 2 0 b Massiah
A Thyagarajan 63 44 5 2 ct Wright b Gordon
M Dave* 49 44 4 1 not out
E Hutchinson 3 4 0 0 runout (Smith/Wright+)
Extras 18 (1 no ball, 0 byes, 6 leg byes, 11 wides)
Team Total 251 for 6 in 50 overs
Did not bat: N Malik, A Shafi, T Patel, A Rajp.
Fall of wicket: 30/1 (Singh), 35/2 (Timbawala), 117/3 (M Patel), 139/4 (Kadu), 231/5 (Thyagarajan), 251/6 (Hutchinson).
New York Bowling Overs-Maidens-Runs-Wickets
A Sanford 10-0-46-0
K Darlington 10-0-51-2
A Gordon 9-1-54-2
D Thomas 10-1-29-0
D Smith 1-0-6-0
S Massiah 9-0-53-1
D Evans 1-0-6-0
New York Innings
Batsman Runs Balls 4s 6s Dismissal
D Evans 0 9 0 0 ct Hutchinson b Dave
G Hall 8 25 1 0 ct sub (Mavrokefalos) b Dave
R Marshall 4 6 0 0 b Hutchinson
A Mohammed 0 12 0 0 ct Timbawala b Hutchinson
C Wright 20 63 0 0 ct Thyagarajan b Rajp
S Massiah 15 35 1 0 ct Timbawala b Malik
D Thomas 1 12 0 0 c & b T Patel
D Smith 0 2 0 0 ct Kadu b Malik
A Sanford 18 13 0 3 b Rajp
A Gordon 9 28 0 0 b Hutchinson
K Darlington 4 26 0 0 not out
Extras 15 (0 no balls, 3 byes, 4 leg byes, 8 wides)
Team Total 94 all out in 38.3 overs
Fall of wicket: 9/1 (Evans), 14/2 (Marshall), 18/3 (Hall), 19/4
(Mohammed), 56/5 (Wright), 56/6 (Massiah), 56/7 (Smith), 77/8
(Sanford), 77/9 (Thomas), 94/10 (Gordon).
South West Bowling Overs-Maidens-Runs-Wickets
E Hutchinson 8.3-3-13-3
M Dave 7-4-8-2
T Patel 9-2-19-1
A Rajp 10-3-20-2
N Malik 4-1-27-2
Unofficial Scorecard
Atlantic vs. North West
North West won by 19 runs (on average runs per over/net run rate)
North West won the toss and batted
North West Innings
Batsman Runs Balls 4s 6s Dismissal
N Mustafa*+ 26 77 1 0 ct Forest b McGarrell
S Singh 12 17 2 0 ct McGarrell b Forest
R Bharadwaj 25 40 2 1 LBW McGarrell
J Crosthwaite 29 22 4 0 runout (McGarrell)
A Thyagarajan 10 24 1 0 LBW Adams
S Santhanam 4 9 0 0 ct Stanislaus+ b Adams
S Divekar 40 43 3 2 ct Lawson b Chokshi
S Saleem 21 33 2 0 LBW McGarrell
S Verma 13 12 2 0 b McGarrell
S Shah 1 15 0 0 run out (McGarrell)
N Jamali 0 1 0 0 not out
Extras 31
Team Total 212 all out in 49.1 overs
Atlantic Bowling Overs-Maidens-Runs-Wickets
J Lawson 9-0-40-0
I Awan 2-0-17-0
D Forest 10-0-40-1
N McGarrell 9.1-2-16-4
G Adams 9-1-52-2
N Chokshi 10-1-35-1
Atlantic Innings
Batsman Runs Balls 4s 6s Dismissal
C Singh 0 2 0 0 ct Saleem b Jamali
A Mishra 0 6 0 0 ct Crosthwaite b Santhanam
S Stanislaus+ 0 3 0 0 ct Mustafa b Jamali
K Baride 19 44 0 2 ct Divekar b Shah
D Forest 66 127 5 0 not out
N McGarrell* 68 75 6 3 not out
Extras 16
Team Total 169 for 4 in 44 overs
Did not bat: M Ghous, I Awan, N Chokshi, G Adams, J Lawson.
North West Bowling Overs-Maidens-Runs-Wickets
N Jamali 8-3-15-2
S Santhanam 10-1-50-1
S Divekar 8-3-17-0
S Shah 8-0-24-1
S Verma 4-0-25-0
S Saleem 3-0-25-0
S Singh 3-0-8-0