The match report from the desk of Vishwa Gaddamanugu. I was lucky enough to have been witnessing all the games that NWCL Select team played in the role of the NWR selector and I was treated to some excellent cricket from a side who believed in themselves and all the players played at least a notch higher than what they possibly can and the end result was the championship. Leadership was a crucial factor with all the experience players coming in and doing their bit which eventually resulted in camaraderie in the team as they functioned and played as one unit. These are my personal views and reliving the great moments that this team had over the Memorial Day weekend of May 28th, 29th and 30th 2011 played in Sacramento, Fremont, San Jose and Santa Clara (all in the Bay Area). You are free to publish the report but make sure that the contents are published in full.
NWCL vs Sacramento CA
Game #1 - Sat, May 28th 2011 - Patwin Elementary School, Davis:
SCA lost the morning game to BACA and for the 2nd game they beefed up their team with the trio of Pathan brothers (Bilal, Aamer and Amjad) making themselves available to play the game against NWCL. NWCL players having landed in the morning and driving for more than 2 1/2 hours to get to the ground from all the different airports in town. SCA won the toss and decided to bat first with the rain threat always looming around. SCA raced away to 77/0 in 7 overs. Nikhil Chury introduced into the attack started making in roads right away and in his second over rocked SCA with 3 wickets in one over with Abdullah taking two stunning catches with the second one easily being the catch of the tournament. The SCA innings slowed down as the rain came down heavily and play was stopped. The game did not commence after the interruption as the wet field was dangerous to play on. Both the team split the points.
NWCL vs NCCA - David and Goliath story revisited - the game of the tournament
Game #2 - Sun, May 29th 2011 - North Gate Park, Fremont:
There was one team that went into the match as the wounded lions where they were mauled for one of the biggest defeats (albeit in a different format) at the same venue a year back. The other was on a absolute high after having a stunning victory after losing out to their out of town opponents for 3 years in a row. One team put forth some replacements (announced 4 days into the tournament) for its unavailable marshals from the last year's mauling. The other one seems to find reinforcements for the job just about everywhere - with a bench strength as good as a formidable team. NWCL had to produce something other than ordinary if they were to compete against a home side (that plays together) in their favorite ground who have been winning many of the local competitions in the past one year.
NWCL won the toss and there was no hesitation to bat first on the wicket where chasing becomes tough against good bowling attacks. Imran Khan bowled well to peg back the first 2 wickets to put NWCL on the back foot. Srinivasa Raghavan played one of the best innings of the tournament where each one of his crafty strokes were breathtaking and enthralled many of the local crowd who gathered to support the local team. Nikhil Chury and Vijay Beniwal played a good supporting role and running hard between the wickets to put the innings back on track. Srinivas was out trying to place in the vacant leg side to pull back the initiative NWCL had gained while batting. Wickets started to fall at regular interval but Nilesh Rane playing his debut match in the inter-league level played an attacking and strokeful innings in the last few overs to take NWCL score to 121/7.
At the half way break even though the game was even stevens the momentum shifted slightly towards NWCL towards the end of the innings with 18 runs scored of the last over and 47 runs scored in the last 5 overs. NCCA on the other hand was very happy to keep NWCL to a par score. At the toss NCCA would have been happy to restrict NWCL to 121.
NCCA's batting started like what Sunny Singh does best - attack the bowlers right from the word go. Vijay knowing the opposition batting started with pace and spin combination. The first wicket fell in the 4th over with the score at 32, at a time where NCCA was running away with the game with Sunny Singh looking in ominous touch. Naseer Jamali bowling a match decisive spell turned the match on its head in the 5th over by claiming 2 wickets of Sunny Singh and Saqib Saleem in back to back first 2 delivers to rock NCCA to 34/3. NWCL captain Vijay Beniwal coming in as 1st change gave nothing away and troubled all the batsman throughout his spell with pin point accuracy. Vijay was supported very well by Srinivasa Raghavan and Samarth Shah (after Naseer finished his spell on the trot) who brought in all their experience of having played at higher level and just pinned down NCCA batting. With the required run rate increasing every over the super strong NCCA batsman (with the likes of regional team regulars like Arjun, Shantanu, Rishi) trying to break the shackles fell one after the other by the pressure mounted by Vijay and company with some accurate and smart bowling and sharp fielding. The match which looked all but sealed at the end of the 4th over from where it looked like NCCA would cruise to victory changed the course and the noose was alarming getting tighter with every passing over for the NCCA batsman. Finally the 30 run victory was much deserving for the NWCL team that had many new players who were playing at this level for the first time and each and every player stepped up their level of cricket. There were lot of hero's in the game - Nilesh Rane, Naseer Jamali, Vijay Beniwal, Samarth Shah - but the stand out performance was from Srinivasa Raghavan (39 runs in 28 balls - 3 4's and 2 6's & then bolwing 3-0-13-1). Srinivasa Raghavan was declared the Man of the Match for his all round performance.
NWCL vs BACA - the virtual Semi Final:
Game #3 - Sun, May 29th 2011 - William Sheppard High School, San Jose:
Both the teams went into the game with the NWCL wanting to improve their chance to win the tournament with a win here and BACA challenging them to win this game so that they can set up a final in the last game of the tournament against arch-rival NCCA.
NWCL captain won the toss and decided to bat first. Srikanth and Shehzad opened the batting and were going steady until Ifthikar dismissed both the openers in quick succession to peg NWCL to 19/2 in the 5th over. Kiran was the next batsman missed and Srinivas was dismissed in the 9th over with the NWCL score reading 39/4. BACA bowler Santosh bowled an amazing spell of fast bowling and was the pick of the bowlers keeping the NWCL batsman in check. Vijay and Nilesh then rebuilt the innings against some accurate bowling by BACA bowlers in their home ground. The ball was moving in the air and off the wicket and was looking tougher for the batsman to bat freely. Vijay and Nilesh then sensing the need ran the runs hard to convert singles and doubles and stitching a 58 run partnership in 62 balls which turned out to be the match winning partnership. Vijay was run out for a well made 23 in 32 balls at the end of the 19th over. Nilesh provided the final push by hitting 15 runs including 2 huge 6's before holing out in the last ball of the innings for one of the best batting display of the match - 37 in 43 balls. The score of 108/7 did not look sufficient at the end of the NWCL innings.
NWCL strength was bowling and they came really hard at the BACA batsman. Naseer and Kiran bowled their hearts out and conceded only 20 runs in the first 6 overs which 2 maidens (one apiece). Kiran got the breakthrough in the 8th over with BACA score reading 36/1. From then on Srinivas, Samarth, Nikhil and Vijay bowled quite accurately (like they did all throughout the tournament) to turn the screws. BACA batting wilted under mounting pressure from accurate bowling as well some excellent catching (Nilesh stumping Ashok, Abdullah taking yet another blinder of a catch to dismiss BACA captain Barry and Vijay took a skier running behind) and ground fielding to hand over NWCL a 20 run victory. Nilesh Rane was declared the Man of the Match for his excellent batting towards the end of the innings which was the difference between BACA 7 NWCL as well as his brilliant glove work.
NWCL vs CCL - the 'literal' Finals
Game #4 - Mon, May 30th 2011 - Kathryn Hughes Elementary School - Santa Clara:
NWCL needed a win this game to win the inaugural NWR inter-league Twenty20 tournament to make the result of the last game of the tournament (BACA vs NCCA) inconsequential. The CCL team arrived 1/2 hour late into the game and did mention that they are kind enough to give us a full game rather than a forfeit. NWCL wanted to win the game outright rather than other means as they had already lost a chance to play the 1st game against SCA.
NWCL won the toss yet again and decided to bat. The start was bad with NWCL losing the first wicket of Abdullah with the score reading only 1. Srikanth and Srinivas then put on a 36 runs partnership to steer NWCL out of trouble. After Srinivas got out Srikanth and Nilesh scored briskly and ran hard as the thick outfield did not help scoring easy. They put on 66 runs for the 3rd wicket before Srikanth was out for a well made 57 runs in 47 balls with included 3 4's and 3 6's. This was the only half century and the highest score by a NWCL batsman in the tournament. In the quest for scoring some quick runs NWCL lost a few wickets towards the end but ended up posting 150 runs for 7 wickets in their allocated 20 overs.
Naseer and Vijay opened the bowling for NWCL and bowled immaculate line and length. CCL wickets started to fall at regular intervals and Vijay went on to try 8 bowlers. CCL folded up for 93 in the 20th over. A convincing 57 run victory for the unbeaten NWCL team clinched them the NWR Inter-League Twenty20 championship. Srikanth Sundaragopalan was declared the Man of the Match for his stellar batting performance.
Championship team:
When the team was announced and looking at the strengths of other teams in the competition no one gave NWCL a chance to win the championship and was looking good to finish #4. The grit and the fighting spirit that this team has demonstrated in the past was seen once again among the newcomers. One of the spectators commented - "don't give them an opening (wicket) - once they get one wicket they have the knack of getting more wickets". They did that against 2 of the strongest sides of the competition. It was such a good bowling performance by the team that they succeeded in keeping the opposition to less than 100 runs in all the games they played.
Nilesh Rane was easily the find of the tournament - scoring 85 runs in 3 completed games while being brilliant behind the wickets. Seasoned campaigners - Vijay Beniwal (52 runs and 4 wickets), Srinivasa Raghavan (67 runs and 2 wickets), Srikanth Sundaragopalan (73 runs), Samarth Shah (11 wickets) and young Naseer Jamali (2 wickets) were always there for the team when it needed them the most. Nikhil Chury (7 wickets) bowling orthodox left arm spin was impressive when ever he was tossed the ball and was used effectively during powerplays. Abdullah Khoajakhail (4 catches) was impressive on the field as usual. Debutant Kiran Somasekhar (2 wickets) bowled his heart out in the game against BACA and CCL. Shehzad Jumani (in the role of an opener), Amit Sharma as an off spinner and Javaid Ashgar as a medium pacer got some opportunities to showcase their talent. The experience of playing the next level cricket should have really helped all the new players and they all did their bit on the field to keep the team spirit high. Captaincy of Vijay Beniwal was spot on and brilliant while he was marshaling the troupes and ringing in changes as deemed necessary to be on top of the game at all times. Srikanth Sundaragopalan in the dual role of a Vice-Captain and Coach made sure that every resource in the team was very well utilized and it paid dividends.
Such was the brilliance of the team work of NWCL team that the organizing committee was unable to find a MVP amongst the best team on display (and having lost out of playing a full game against the last placed side) and gave the award to Sunny Singh (from NCCA for scoring 125 runs (with 75 runs coming against weaker opponents) and 3 wickets in 4 matches). Samarth Shah was awarded the bowler of the tournament with 11 wickets. Arjun Thyagarajan (NCCA) won the batsman of the tournament award with the highest run aggregate (129 runs).
It was a sweet victory for the NWCL team that had 6 players playing at this level for the first time and that too after putting a team together 4 days to the tournament while spending money out of their pockets to travel and play the games over the long weekend. Each and everyone of them did respond magnificently, rose to the occasion and played out of their skins to win the championship.
This championship is a tribute to all the hard work put in by all the individuals for the past 5 odd years to build a system in place (time, money and the commitment) so that young talent can be breed into the system without having to feel the pressure.
Standings/Points: http://super25cricket.org/index.asp?tx_id=1192&m_id=3&mm_id=11
Go NWCL Select !!!
Go Moosees !!!!!
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