A spectacular turnout at Bryn Mawr Meadows saw fans treated to two very close games today on day two of the USACA Western Conference Tournament in Minneapolis, Minn. In the end Central East triumphed over North West by 34 runs in a hard fought game to stay undefeated while Central West lost to South West by 23 runs to remain winless.

By Peter Della Penna

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A spectacular turnout at Bryn Mawr Meadows saw fans treated to two very close games today on day two of the USACA Western Conference Tournament in Minneapolis, Minn. In the end Central East triumphed over North West by 34 runs in a hard fought game to stay undefeated while Central West lost to South West by 23 runs to remain winless. South West and North West are even at 1-1 and will face off tomorrow for the right to go with Central East to the USACA National Championship in Houston this October.

Usman Shuja Post Match Interview vs. North West from Peter Della Penna on Vimeo.

Central East captain Usman Shuja put in a sterling all-round performance for his team. His day began by scoring 29 not out in 22 balls. He did it on a tricky pitch that had some very uneven bounce to help Central East post 219 in 48.2 overs. He then took three wickets at the start of the North West reply to put his team on the path to their second win.

“We played on the same wicket yesterday and it behaved much better,” said Shuja. “The ball was coming much nicer on the bat yesterday. But today there were a lot of balls keeping low, a lot of balls bouncing and there were a couple of wet spots as well because there was rain last night. So it was a bit difficult so I was pretty happy with 220 in the end. We started off, we wanted to have 300 runs just like yesterday, but in the end I was pretty happy with 220 because the pitch wasn’t playing that well.”

Central East got a solid contribution at the top of the order from 19-year old Saminda Siriwardena with 49, including a 50 run stand for the third wicket with Amit Kumar. Siriwardena made North West pay after he was dropped on 1 at second slip. When Siriwardena edged Saurabh Verma to Srinivas Raghavan at first slip to start the 28th over, the score was 121 for 3.

However, two overs prior to that there was a major piece of controversy on the day. It was the first of many issues that would pop up in regards to horrendous umpiring throughout both matches. Kumar was on 23, having already been dropped on 5 and 15, when he went to pull a fuller delivery from Verma. It appeared that he tickled the ball to fine leg, but Verma gave a huge shout for LBW and the umpire gave Kumar out. Kumar, who had set off for a single, then proceeded to keep running at the umpire after the decision had been made and began waving his bat to make the argument that he hit the ball. He then stood at the wicket and refused to walk off.

“I am of the opinion if it’s a wrong decision, you should walk out,” said Shuja. “But in his defense, he said the ball never hit the pad and he was given out LBW. It was all bat. So if you’re given out, I would say I would just walk out. But at the same time this was so bizarre that the ball never hit the pad, according to him, so he kind of objected. I think he should have still walked out but in his defense, it’s very bizarre to see that you’re being given LBW when the ball never hit the pad.”

The umpire who gave the decision then decided to consult with his partner at square leg and after a few minutes the decision was reversed and Kumar was allowed to continue. North West captain Vijay Beniwal then spent the next few minutes in discussion with the umpires as he tried to figure out what had just happened.

New fans come out to see cricket in Minneapolis from Peter Della Penna on Vimeo.

“Batsmen shouldn’t walk up to the umpire and show the bat,” said North West coach Sujesh Pulikkal. “This is dissent and that’s not the right maturity. That’s a dissent which should not be allowed in cricket because batsmen have got no right to walk up to the umpire and show the bat, because if it’s already given out, he should walk.”

Kumar then went on to make 65 before he was out to Raghavan to make the score 174 for 7 on the last ball of the 42nd over.

This brought Shuja to the wicket and he went out to try and make quick runs at the end. In the 46th over, he hit Verma for 15 runs, including two huge sixes to help push his team past 200. He couldn’t get enough support though and last man Talha Zamir was bowled by Mohammed Bilal Khan to end the innings and leave Shuja not out on 29.

Shuja then came out and bowled with tremendous intent. He kept an immaculate line while mixing up his length, bowling a series of bouncers to unsettle the North West batsmen. His first ball of the match accounted for Ashok Singh as the batsman tried to hook a bouncer but only managed a top edge to Asif Mehmood Khan at square leg for a golden duck. In the 8th over he bowled a short ball that kept very low to have Majid Mohammed out LBW for 4. In the 10th over, he peppered Raghavan with a series of bouncers before beating the batsman with a yorker to send him back for a duck and leave North West reeling at 33 for 3. Shuja had decimated the top order to stake his claim for Man of the Match honors.

“Usman did bowl well and that pretty much sealed the game,” said Pulikkal. “Suddenly it was 63 for 6 so it was a tough chase from there because we were always catching up.”

North West put up a spirited fight back with an 80 run 7th wicket stand. Verma joined Shantanu Divekar after the sixth wicket fell and the two did a brilliant job of rotating the strike to keep the score ticking along. Verma scored 47 at a run a ball, but the partnership ended when he charged Mehmood Khan’s left arm orthodox spin and was stumped. That was the last hope for North West and they wound up being all out for 185 in 45 overs.

In the other match of the day, South West pulled off an amazing turnaround to beat Central West. South West was sent in to bat and were staring down the barrel at 24 for 4. But Man of the Match Marcus Stewart scored 56 runs and led a counter attack with captain Mehul Dave as the two turned the match back in South West’s favor with a 78 run 6th wicket stand.

Central West was penalized for a slow over rate in the field by having five overs reduced from their batting innings. But the decision arrived with great confusion. At first, the umpires pulled everyone off the field after three and a half hours of time had elapsed, which is what was allotted for the innings, even though there were still two men batting for South West in the 45th over of the first innings. After a lengthy delay, the match referee intervened and the players were then brought back onto the field to see if Central West could bat out their 50 overs. They were eventually bowled out for 206 in 47.2 overs.

According to Central West Manager Ahmed Jeddy, the umpires informed him that, upon resumption, if Central West bowled South West out before 50 overs were complete, Central West would not have any overs reduced in their innings. But Jeddy said that during the innings break, the umpires and match referee reversed their decision and informed Jeddy that they must pass the target in 45 overs.

“I was upset. I mean I had to tell them that look, this is not fair,” said Jeddy. “The game in the next ground is happening at the same time. They started 11 minutes late, yet their game is still going on. Their umpires have not docked them. They are keeping it 50 overs… now all of a sudden you are implying such a harsh penalty in the name of ICC and the rules of ICC when you were not observing the changing of gloves, the unnecessary water breaks, six or seven times a ball was lost for many minutes. I mean none of those things were taken into consideration which I feel was unfair to my team. I understand the game is over. I understand we lost. We lost to a good team. I am not going to deny that fact that we played badly. But at the same token, had the complexion of the game not changed because of some of these decisions, our boys were in a very, very positive frame of mind when we started the game today. Yet, around the lunch time our mental state of my players was completely changed because of all this fiasco.”

Central West got off to a decent start in reply as Orlando Baker and Sushil Nadkarni put on 63 for the first wicket. But as pressure started to mount with the rising run rate because of the reduced overs, wickets started to tumble until Central West was all out for 183 in 44.3 overs.

Central West was not the only team in the match affected in an unfair way by the officiating though. The umpires could not keep track of how many overs each bowler had bowled for Central West and it led to a peculiar circumstance of Niraj Shah bowling 11 overs, even though the maximum allowed in a 50 over game is 10 per bowler.

“One of my bowlers ended up bowling 11 overs,” said Jeddy. “They only found out when he started bowling his 11th over. The scorer started yelling from the outside to the umpires that how come you are allowing them to bowl this guy for an 11th over and at that time they realized, ‘Oh, we made a mistake. We did not really count his overs correctly,’ and he ended up bowling 11 overs instead of 10.”

The umpiring miscalculations were not limited to the Central West match against South West. In the Central East game versus North West, the umpires called at least two 7-ball overs and at least six 5-ball overs during the course of the match. There were also three instances of too many or too few balls in an over on Friday in the match between Central East and South West.

The umpiring controversies have been one of the few unfortunate occurrences to what has been a very well run tournament by the Minnesota Cricket Association. Roughly 800 fans of all ages, including lots of young families, came to the ground over the course of the day on Saturday, many of whom had never been to a game of cricket before but were drawn to the ground at Bryn Mawr Meadows through a series of publicity efforts, including an article Thursday in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and a segment promoting the event on a National Public Radio affiliate radio station in Minneapolis.

“I heard about it on NPR yesterday morning on my way to work and I’d never seen cricket and didn’t have anything to do today so I dragged Kelly along with me,” said Janna Holm, 24, of Minneapolis who came with her friend Kelly Nail, 24. “It’s an interesting sport to watch and once you learn the rules of the game, it’s great to be here and see so many people enjoying the sport.”

“We’ll definitely be back,” said Nail.


USACA Western Conference Tournament, Bryn Mawr Meadows – Minneapolis, Minn.  (Unofficial Scorecards)

Central East vs. North West

Central East won by 34 runs; Central East won toss and batted
Man of the Match: Usman Shuja

Central East Batting

Batsman         Runs    Balls    4s    6s    Dismissal
A Joshi        10    14    1    0    run out (Salver)
S Siriwardena        49    64    6    0    ct Raghavan bowled Verma
F Babar        13    31    2    0    bowled Bilal Khan
A Kumar        65    87    8    0    ct Mustafa+ bowled Raghavan
A Mehdi+        5    17    0    0    c & b Shah
M Yousaf        0    5    0    0    LBW Verma
S Nazir        3    16    0    0    c & b Shah
A Mehmood Khan    9    11    0    0    ct Salver bowled Shah
U Shuja*        29    22    1    2    not out
A Pathan        4    7    0    0    ct Singh bowled Bilal Khan
T Zamir        0    1    0    0    bowled Bilal Khan
Total Extras         32
Team Total         219 all out in 48.1 overs

North West Bowling   

Overs-Maidens-Runs-Wickets

M Bilal Khan        9.1-1-37-3
S Raghavan        10-0-52-1
S Divekar        8-1-33-0
S Verma        10-0-50-2
S Shah            10-1-31-3
V Beniwal        1-0-8-0


North West Batting

Batsman        Runs    Balls    4s    6s    Dismissal
N Mustafa+        26    40    3    0    st Mehdi+ bowled Yousaf
A Singh        0    1    0    0    ct Mehmood Khan bowled Shuja
M Mohammed        4    16    0    0    LBW Shuja
S Raghavan        0    12    0    0    bowled Shuja
S Salver        15    16    2    0    LBW Mehmood Khan
V Beniwal*        0    2    0    0    ct Siriwardena bowled Yousaf
S Divekar        30    53    2    0    ct Zamir bowled Mehmood Khan
S Verma        47    47    5    2    st Mehdi+ bowled Mehmood Khan
S Vashishat        14    36    1    0    st Mehdi+ bowled Joshi
S Shah            3    15    0    0    run out (Zamir)
M Bilal Khan        12    16    1    0    not out
Total Extras        34
Team Total         185 all out in 45 overs

Central East Bowling   

Overs-Maidens-Runs-Wickets

A Pathan        10-1-32-0
U Shuja        9-0-45-3
M Yousaf        8-0-35-2
A Mehmood Khan    10-1-29-3
S Nazir        3-0-14-0
T Zamir        4-0-21-0
A Joshi        1-0-3-1


Central West vs. South West

South West on by 23 runs; Central West won toss and fielded
Man of the Match: Marcus Stewart

South West Batting

Batsman        Runs    Balls    4s    6s    Dismissal
R Kadu+        9    8    1    0    LBW Chavva
R Timbawala        0    12    0    0    LBW Bashir
A Rajp            0    8    0    0    LBW Chavva
A Thyagarajan        27    23    3    0    ct Kukreti+ bowled Rowe
A Shafi        1    21    0    0    ct Kukreti+ bowled Chavva
M Stewart        56    44    6    2    ct Shah bowled Haroon
M Dave*        29    42    2    0    bowled Nadkarni
D Mavrokefalos    24    33    2    1    LBW Shah
G Boinepally        3    7    0    0    ct Inampudi bowled Nadkarni
R Singh        22    31    2    1    not out
H Shahid        2    16    0    0    ct Baker bowled Nadkarni
Total Extras        33
Team Total         206 all out in 47.2 overs

Central West Bowling     

Overs-Maidens-Runs-Wickets

S Chavva        7-2-24-3
H Bashir        5-3-8-1
S Srinivasan        2-0-16-0
O Baker        2-0-14-0
A Rowe         7-0-50-0
N Shah            11-0-51-1
N Haroon        3-0-10-1
S Nadkarni        6.2-1-15-3
J Desai            4-1-10-1


Central West Batting

Batsman         Runs    Balls    4s    6s    Dismissal
S Nadkarni        19    35    2    0    ct Thyagarajan bowled Shahid
O Baker        44    65    1    0    ct Kadu+ bowled Thyagarajan
N Shah            16    20    2    0    ct Shafi bowled Dave
H Bashir        10    23    1    0    st Kadu+ bowled Thyagarajan
J Desai            8    11    1    0    LBW Dave
R Kukreti+*        27    28    2    0    run out (Stewart)
V Inampudi        21    25    0    0    bowled Rajp
S Srinivasan        0    2    0    0    bowled Stewart
A Rowe        8    8    0    1    bowled Dave
N Haroon        5    3    1    0    bowled Shahid
S Chavva        0    1    0    0    not out
Total Extras        25
Team Total         183 all out in 44.3 overs

South West Bowling   

Overs-Maidens-Runs-Wickets
M Stewart        8-0-35-1
M Dave        8.3-0-30-3
H Shahid        6-0-22-2
A Thyagarajan     9-0-38-2
R Timbawala        4-0-17-0
A Rajp            8-0-25-1