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By Greg Uzelac & Tim Shirrifs (ACC)

The 2011 American College Cricket Spring Break Championship was kicked off in a dazzling opening ceremony on March 15, 2011, at the Central Broward stadium.  Thirty teams from American and Canadian Universites gathered for cricket's version of March Madness to compete for the Chanderpaul Trophy. American College Cricket President Lloyd Jodah introduced the teams and acknowledged the role of Facebook and Shiv Chanderpaul in the rapid growth of the organization.

Also in attendance were Nino DiLoreto, CEO of ACC; Salman Ahmed,CEO of Big League USA; Trinidad and Tobago Consul General Dr Anil Ramnanan; Dan West, the Director of Broward County Parks and David Sentance, the author of "Cricket in America 1710-2001."

Here are brief reports for the matches that followed:

Montgomery College vs New Jersey Institute of Technology

When Montgomery College won the toss and chose to bat, things didn’t look so good optimistic when Ritin bowled Danish Asghav in the first over with a beautiful ball that pegged back his leg stump. However the tempo rose and runs started flowing more freely with Montgomery bringing up their 50 in the 8th over. NJIT took regular wickets until Montgomery’s All-Star, Adil Bhatti hammered the opposition reaching the first 50 of the tournament in the 19th over with a cracking six.

NJIT attempted to start off with a bang to beat their opponents’ score, but their run chase just never took off. Due particularly to Montgomery’s exceptional fielding, wickets fell at a hastening rate and eventually NJIT were bowled out for 101.

Rutgers University vs. Cleveland State

In a shortened match, Rutgers set Cleveland State a total of 50 to win for the loss of only one wicket. Cleveland State sadly couldn’t reply with enough as they were reduced to 43/8. Udit Patel was the best of the fearsome bowling attack, taking 2 for 4.

Texas A&M vs. Rutgers University

With the first match of Day 2 there was excitement to be had. Texas A&M lost the wicket of Ravishankar early on but rebuilt after that. Hamza Mohammed top scored with 44 with Rutgers’ Mital patel being the pick of their bowlers with bowling figures of 2 for 16. In their chase of Texas A&M’s total of 134, Rutgers was unfortunate enough to face the heavy artillery in their opponents' bowling line-up. The entire middle order was dismissed for naught as there were a total of five ducks in the innings. Nisarg Chokshi stuck in from the start and made 45 until he was bowled by Ockert Greyvenstein. Rutgers innings closed at 71 all out.

College of Wooster vs. George Mason University

George Mason started their 2011 campaign with a victory that showed their intentions in this tournament. With College of Wooster batting first, the GM boys got right to taking them apart with vicious bowling and sharp fielding. Wooster was bowled out for 42 with Shahrukh Mazhar taking 5 for 3: the competition’s first 5-for. George Mason replied promptly reaching the needed runs in under three overs for the loss of only one wicket.

University of Southern California vs. University of Iowa

Thanks to a tidy spell from Dushant Sharma (4/20), USC set themselves a score of 101 to win against U of I who were also playing their first match of the competition. Though some of their batsmen looked in good form, USC faced tough opposition particularly towards the end of the match. A near collapse of their batting in the 13th and 14th overs gave the Trojans a scare, but they reached victory with the final score being 103 for the loss of 7 wickets.

University of Pennsylvania vs. University of Minnesota

The historic UPenn cricket team put in a superb effort to win vs the University of Minnesota team, with Rahul Borouthu smashing 70 runs in 44 balls, including 5 fours and 3 sixes. Dhruv Touhniwal scored 51 off 44 balls with 5 fours and UMN made 158 for 8 off 20 overs. UMN’s Shatanu Chavan then took it upon himself to lead the chase for 159 by scoring a superb 90, which included 11 fours and 4 sixes, narrowly missing the first century of the Championship. Still, Chavan’s effort was not enough as UMN got 150 for 6 wickets in 20 overs.

Boston University vs. University of Iowa

With the help of Bhupinder Singh’s whopping 79, the boys from U of I set a massive total of 166 to chase for the Bulldogs. Though the lower middle order showed a glimmer of hope, BU’s batting just didn’t take off. Sathwik Seshadri top scored with a fighting 43 not out. BU ended their innings at 114 for 9.

Texas A&M vs. Florida Atlantic University

With FAU winning the toss and sending Texas A&M in to field first, their intentions seemed to set a grand score to chase. However, once again the Texans showed their skills with the ball limiting them to 104 all out in 18.4 overs with Ankush Kothalkar doing the damage with 4 wickets. They then proceeded to show their batting as they chased it down in 19 overs for the loss of only 5 wickets. Ockert Greyvenstein top scored for Texas A&M with 44 not out.

Montgomery College vs. New York University – Polytechnic

After NYU-Poly made 107 for 6 with Vinay Tawale top scoring on 26 not out, it the was Adrian Gordon vs. Adil Bhatti showdown. Such was a sight to see as Gordon steamed in bowling as fast as ever. Bhatti resisted however and scored 21 not out. Together with Deepak Pathak’s 39 not out the Montgomery boys scored 108 to win.

Here are summary results from other matches (added March 21):

FIU vs. UMBC – FIU (142 all out off 19.5) won by 6 runs. UMBC made 136/8 off 20 overs.

BU vs. Texas Tech – Texas Tech (124/3 12.4 overs) won by 3 wickets over BU (120/9 off 20 overs)8.Ohio State U (OSU) vs SCSU (St. Cloud State University)-OSU batting first scored 114 all out. OSU won by one run.

USC vs UMN – UMN (43/10 in 14.5 overs Rishabh Nauda 5 for 3 (hat trick) ) were defeated by USC (44/3 in 6 overs) by 7 wickets.

U Iowa vs Thunderbird – Thunderbird (112/6 off 20 overs) beat U Iowa (53/10 off 15 overs).

Texas Tech vs UPenn – UPenn (105/2 18.4 overs) beat Texas Tech (104/10 in 18.5 overs) by 8 wickets.

Montgomery vs Rutgers – Montgomery (139/4 off 16.5) beat Rutgers (136/3 off 20 overs, Nalin Chopra 78*) by 6 wickets.

NCSI vs FIU – FIU batted first and scored 92 for 9. NCSU won by 8 wickets. Top score N. Talballikas 64.

CSU vs NY Poly – NY Ploy batted first scored 147 for 6. Top score Adrian Gordon 52. CSU all out for 54. NY Poly won by 43 runs.

UH vs McGill-UH batted first and scored 125 for 5. McGill all out for 82. UH won by 43 runs.

TAM vs NJIT -Tam 171 for 9. Top score Ockert 85. NJIT 116 for 9. Texas A & M won by 55.

GWU vs SCSU – GWU batted first 108 for 3. SCSU all out for 104. GWU won by 5 runs.

[Update from March 21, 2011]

After a tight exciting semi final game vs U of Pennsylvania, the George Mason University cricket team took on their rivals, 2009 national Champions Montgomery College for the Chanderpaul Trophy.  Montgomery defeated Auburn in the other semi-final match.

Geroge Mason guys won the toss and batted first. As their captian Hashim Khan later said, “It’s difficult to chase runs on this pitch so we knew if we batted first and put up 150 runs, we would have a great chance of winning.”  The George Mason team did not manage that total but got to 138, a score that the Montgomery batsmen fell short of in their chase reaching only 124 in their chase. 

[Pics courtesy of AmericanCollegeCricket.com]