Central East pulls off epic victory to stun South West on Day 1
2009 Aug 01 by DreamCricket USA
An unbeaten century by Amit Kumar steered Central East to a total of 293, but it was Man of the Match Akhil Pathan's stunning five-wicket haul that stole the game away from South West and gave Central East victory by 43 runs on Day 1 of the USACA Western Conference Tournament from Bryn Mawr Meadows in Minneapolis, Minn.
By Peter Della Penna
An unbeaten century by Amit Kumar steered Central East to a total of 293, but it was Man of the Match Akhil Pathan’s stunning five-wicket haul that stole the game away from South West and gave Central East victory by 43 runs on Day 1 of the USACA Western Conference Tournament from Bryn Mawr Meadows in Minneapolis, Minn.
Before the tournament started, an opening ceremony was held by the organizers which delayed the start of play from the scheduled time. It included a massive breakfast for players and officials, team photos, a speech by USACA CEO Don Lockerbie to all the teams declaring the tournament open and an unforgettable national anthem performance.
Post Match Interview of Akhil Pathan and Amit Kumar from Peter Della Penna on Vimeo.
Central East won the toss and elected to bat first on a clear and sunny morning. The teenage openers Abhijit Joshi and Saminda Siriwardena both got out early to bring Kumar to the crease with the score at 37 for 2 in the 9th over. In the very next over, number three batsman Fahad Babar offered the simplest of chances off the bowling of Mehul Dave, spooning a ball to Chaminda Jayakody at cover. But Jayakody spilled it and that allowed the highest partnership of the innings to build for Central East as Babar and Kumar put on 84 runs for the third wicket.
Kumar could have been run out for 12 in the 13th over when Babar was on strike and clipped one to midwicket. Kumar set off and but went back when Babar called no. Ravi Timbawala’s throw to the stumps at the non-striker’s end missed and Kumar continued. Kumar got another reprieve on 25 with the score at 94 for 2. Aditya Thyagarajan had come on to bowl leg spin a few overs earlier and on the first ball of the 22nd over, Ritesh Kadu missed a stumping chance that gave Kumar another life.
The partnership finally ended when Babar top edged an attempted sweep to off-spinner Abhemanyu Rajp and was caught by Ali Shafi at square leg for 31 to make it 121 for 3. Rajp, Thyagarajan and left arm orthodox bowler Nadir Malik performed beautifully in the middle overs to help restrict the scoring rate.
“We didn’t want to push anything extra when the spinners were on,” said Kumar. “They were bowling well. The ball was turning.”
Small partnerships were built with Lakshmikumar Rajaramachandran, Manan Patel and Ashhar Mehdi to try and keep the scoring rate reasonable for Central East as Kumar stayed at the wicket.
He got some more help along the way though. On 69, with the score at 180 for 5, he drilled one straight back to Malik at chest height but was put down. Then on 88, Theo Mavrokefalos fielded one in the covers and threw to Kadu behind the stumps with Kumar looking to be short when the bails came off, but the umpire gave not out and Kumar resumed.
Kumar brought up his century with a cover drive for four. He finished with 12 fours and 3 sixes to end on 115 not out. Central East wound up getting 293 for 7 with the captain Khawaja Usman Shuja having the next best score, getting a rapid 33 off 16 balls as he put on 58 for the 7th wicket with Kumar.
The score initially looked like it was slightly below par considering the lightning quick outfield and short boundaries. It looked way below par while Kadu and Timbawala were at the wicket for South West. The opening pair feasted on the Central East pacemen, who were pitching the ball too full, too often. Kadu especially made merry driving straight down the ground.
The stand could have been broken with the score at 64 for 0 in the 13th over. Asif Mehmood Khan came on as Central East employed spin for the first time in the match. Timbawala was on 14 when he chipped one softly back to Khan, who fumbled it before it fell to the ground. Timbawala then started to cruise along and slowly caught up to Kadu, who raced to his fifty in 47 balls. Meanwhile Timbawala took 70 balls to raise his half-century.
The pair put on 151 before Kadu threw his wicket away. Joshi came on to bowl off-spin, the third spin option used by captain Shuja. His first two overs went for 15, but Shuja stuck with the youngster and after getting hit for four on the fourth ball, Joshi flighted one and Kadu couldn’t resist going for the sweep. He was aiming for midwicket, but hit it wide of mid on where Nisar Mahmood was stationed and took a simple catch to dismiss Kadu for 83 off 77 balls.
Thyagarajan came to the wicket and did well to rotate the strike and keep Timbawala going. Before long, Timbawala was into the nervous nineties and a short time later he got out of them, though not the way he was hoping. Pathan came on to bowl his second spell after bowling three overs earlier. With the first ball of his second over in the spell he pitched one full and straight that Timbawala tried flicking through midwicket but missed badly and was clean bowled for 92.
Both openers had wasted wonderful opportunities to get centuries and neither one looked like getting out until the final stroke. Still it didn’t seem as though there was any need to worry and South West was well ahead of the Central East run rate.
Ali Shafi came in at four and lasted 13 balls before he was out for 6 to Shuja defending a short ball to the keeper Mehdi. It made the score 215 for 3 and may have raised caused palms to sweat a little more in the South West camp, but overall they were in control of the game.
However, a sledgehammer blow was struck by Pathan in the next over. On the first ball, he fired in a yorker that Thyagarajan was late on and was plumb LBW, gone for 24 to make it 217 for 4. Pathan was in ecstasy after claiming the prized scalp of Thyagarajan, one of the stars of the USA Men’s National Team, and let out a wild howl to show his delight while his teammates mobbed him at the wicket. After Marcus Stewart got off the mark with a four on his second ball, he tried an audacious pull on the final ball of the over to a fullish delivery, missed and was struck just below the knee roll. The umpire gave Stewart out LBW for 4 to make it 221 for 5.
“I knew that if I bowled line and length I would get my wickets,” said Pathan. “My players were supporting me so much.”
Two balls into the next over, Khan got Mavrokefalos edging behind for a golden duck and the capitulation was well and truly on. South West had lost four wickets in 12 balls to go from 215 for 2 to 222 for 6. Pathan got his fourth wicket in the next over when Dave chipped a half volley straight to Siriwardena at mid on for 3. The next man to fall was Hammad Shahid two overs later to give Pathan his five-wicket haul as he edged one behind to Mehdi.
“It’s a batting wicket, not much in it,” said Kumar. “The ball doesn’t have much of a life in it, so somebody getting five wickets with that ball… it’s a great effort so I would say Akhil just bowled his heart out.”
Shuja then accounted for the last two wickets as the last nine men fell for 50 runs. It was an unbelievable turnaround for Central East, who looked dead and buried while Kadu and Timbawala were at the wicket. South West was bowled out for 250 in 45.1 overs.
“When Aditya, which is a national player, got out, that was a turning point,” said Reggie Benjamin, coach of South West. “But besides that, when the two batsman who were really set, Ravi who had 90 odd and Kadu had 80 something, and you get out, soft dismissals, it always creates a problem.”
In the day’s other match, North West won by 7 wickets over Central West. Central West was put in to bat by North West and they never got going as they were bowled out for 131 in 35.1 overs. Nadeem Haroon top scored with 29 as Mohammed Bilal Khan and Samarth Shah took three wickets each.
“The key to the victory was Bilal Khan,” said Sujesh Pulikkal, coach of North West. “The way he bowled after we gave around 40 odd runs in first six overs, this was an excellent comeback. Bilal pretty much cleaned up the top order. He took Sushil [Nadkarni] and Orlando Baker and that pretty much sealed the game right there.”
Wicketkeeper Nauman Mustafa was named Man of the Match for North West as he took three catches behind the stumps and then opened the innings, scoring 53* in a great all-round performance.
Tomorrow’s matchups feature the two winners and two losers from day one facing off against each other. Central West will take on South West on the East Ground while North West will face off against Central East on the West Ground. It started raining hard in Minneapolis from 10 p.m. local time and continued for several hours overnight, but the forecast is for clear and sunny skies on Saturday with a temperature around 70. The pitch was covered with a tarp by tournament officials prior to leaving the ground on Friday night.
USACA Western Conference Tournament
Bryn Mawr Meadows – Minneapolis, Minn.
Unofficial Scorecards
Central East vs. South West
Central East won by 43 runs
Central East won toss and batted
Man of the Match: Akhil Pathan
Central East Batting
Batsman Runs Balls 4s 6s Dismissal
A Joshi 11 17 1 0 ct Mavrokefalos bowled Dave
F Babar 31 72 3 0 ct Shafi bowled Rajp
A Kumar 115 104 12 3 not out
L Rajaramachandran 14 35 0 1 ct Shahid bowled Malik
M Patel 9 8 1 0 ct Stewart bowled Thyagarajan
A Mehdi+ 26 13 3 1 ct Malik bowled Dave
KU Shuja* 33 16 4 1 ct Mavrokefalos bowled Dave
A Mehmood Khan 4 3 0 0 not out
A Pathan
Total Extras 32
Team Total 293 for 7 in 50 overs
South West Bowling Overs-Maidens-Runs-Wickets
H Shahid 7-0-31-1
M Dave 10-1-64-3
C Jayakody 4-0-21-0
A Thyagarajan 10-0-60-1
M Stewart 4-0-46-0
A Rajp 6-0-26-1
South West Batting
R Kadu+ 83 77 10 0 ct Mahmood bowled Joshi
R Timbawala 92 110 9 0 bowled Pathan
A Thyagarajan 24 27 2 0 LBW Pathan
A Shafi 6 13 0 0 ct Mehdi+ bowled Shuja
M Dave* 3 9 0 0 ct Siriwardena bowled Pathan
M Stewart 4 5 1 0 LBW Pathan
D Mavrokefalos 0 1 0 0 ct Mehdi+ bowled Khan
A Rajp 8 14 0 0 bowled Shuja
H Shahid 3 8 0 0 ct Mehdi+ bowled Pathan
C Jayakody 10 9 1 0 not out
Total Extras 13
Team Total 250 all out in 45.1 overs
Central East Bowling Overs-Maidens-Runs-Wickets
KU Shuja 9.1-0-37-3
A Pathan 10-0-50-5
A Mehmood Khan 10-0-53-1
L Rajaramachandran 3-0-19-0
A Joshi 4-0-30-1
A Mehdi 3-0-13-0
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Central West vs.
Man of the Match: Nauman Mustafa
Central West Batting
Batsman Runs Balls 4s 6s Dismissal
O Baker 12 14 1 0 LBW M Bilal Khan
R Kukreti+* 8 13 2 0 ct Mustafa+ bowled Divekar
V Inampudi 14 27 1 1 bowled Divekar
N Shah 2 7 0 0 ct Mustafa+ bowled M Bilal Khan
R Corns 2 14 0 0 ct M Imran Khan bowled Beniwal
J Desai 19 47 1 0 not out
H Bashir 1 9 0 0 ct Mustafa+ bowled Shah
V Shankar 0 5 0 0 LBW Shah
Total Extras 29
Team Total 131 all out in 35.1 overs
M Bilal Khan 6-0-33-3
M Imran Khan 6-0-37-0
V Beniwal 3-0-8-2
S Shah 4.1-0-14-3
Batsman Runs Balls 4s 6s Dismissal
A Thyagarajan 9 20 2 0 LBW Bashir
N Mustafa+ 53 106 5 0 not out
M Mohammed 34 73 3 0 LBW Baker
V Beniwal* 21 14 2 1 run out (Shah)
S Shah
A Singh
M Imran Khan
M Bilal Khan
Total Extras 16
Team Total 133 for 3 in 33.1 overs
Central West Bowling Overs-Maidens-Runs-Wickets
H Bashir 4.1-1-21-1
V Shankar 4-0-14-0
O Baker 7-1-24-1
N Shah 6-0-32-0
R Corns 2-0-6-0
J Desai 1-0-1-0
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