LAUDERHILL – A day like this was made for cricket, beautiful blue skies with clouds of white and temperatures around 78 degrees. The Finals of the first American College Cricket Spring Break Championship got underway for the Chanderpaul Trophy in Lauderhill, Florida.
Shiv himself began the celebrations by scoring 112* in the ODI against England in the West Indies. Chanderpaul could not be here to present the Trophy himself but he sent his best wishes to the Teams and showed the way with his ODI Century. Inspired by this century the young College Cricketers,the future of American Cricket, took the field.
Montgomery College won the toss and opted to bat first and surprisingly found it difficult to score against a tight University of South Florida bowling attack. After 7 overs Montgomery had only scored 29 runs, this from a batting lineup that had averaged 11 runs per over in their previous matches.
USF Captain Harsh Baddepalli, one of Florida’s young stars, opened the bowling with Nirav Shah and both kept great line and length, frustrating the Montgomery batsmen.The consistent and elegant stroke player Danish Ashgar went for only 7 and Sadiq Naseer and Sehgal spent some time steadying the ship before they both fell, at 60 and 67. Ben David made the breakthrough for USF and Montgomery looked vulnerable for the first time in the Championship.
Captain Adit Bhatti, a talented all rounder who could easily have been Dreamcricket.com’s Series MVP, came in at number four and Mohammed Khamran joined him to put on a 108 run partnership. Bhatti held his end down scoring 36* whilst Khamran did a Chanderpaul imitation by saving his Team’s innings. To do so Khamran punished any errant ball and pulled and hooked 6 sixes in his 63*. Khamran’s sixes soared well over the boundary line, and the scorers and spectators seemed in danger a few times. Like Chanderpaul, the left-handed Khamran gave the impression of being in control, doing what he wanted to do with the bowling despite the strong winds helping the swing bowlers. Khamran and Bhatti propelled Montgomery to 175 for 3, low compared to their previous scores but a high one nevertheless in 20 overs cricket.
The USF Team began with a good run rate but kept losing wickets. Losing star batsman Harsh Boddepalli to Khamran really hurt their chances and they were all out for 120, never really threatening the Montgmery total.
The Montgomery players grabbed the stumps to celebrate their winning of the Chanderpaul Trophy in the Inaugural American College Cricket Spring Break Championship. A cooler was emptied on Captain Adit Bhatti before USACA VP of Cricket Operations Monaf Mohammed presented the jubiliant players with the huge Shiv Chanderpaul Trophy.
Later in the evening Awards were presented by Laparkan Shipping’s Brian Edun in the following categories:
Laparkan Best Bowler – Ankush Chandra of Boston University – together with Sumantro Das and Shilpin Makwana he comprised a Pace attack that would have probably performed better had they not come from the Massachusetts winter lacking practice.
Laparkan Best Batsman – Rajeev Prabhakar of the University of Miami – his amazing 89* in 34 ballsspeaks for itself. It was dazzling and audacious and an example of what this new U of Miami Team can do next year.
Laparkan Best Fielder – Atishe Chordia of Carnegie Mellon University- Atishe is a star. A gentleman on and off the field, he opens the batting, and often takes off the gloves to bowl fast. His Wicketkeeping was excellent,even when his pacers were generating lots of bounce and he had to jump for the balls.
Dreamcricket.com Series MVP – Mohammed Khamran of Montgomery College. His innings in the Finals saved the game for his Team and as a left-hander he drew comparisons to his hero, the great Shiv Chanderpaul.
Khamran also took the crucial wicket of Harsh Baddepillai, the USF star batsman and effectively stymied USF’s chances of winning. His all-round performance throughout the Championship was excellent with the bat and ball.
Dreamcricket.com Team Award, to the College Cricket Team best exemplifying the spirit of Cricket, went to Carnegie Mellon. From the moment this Team heard of the Championship they registered their support and showed their professionalism. On the field they batted and bowled with desire. Opening batsman Aswin Badrinarayan was one of the best batsmen in the Championship and Zoheb Veljee showed lots of talent. Their fast bowlers, Sahil Jolly Anirudh Sood and Ankur Sarin generated surprising speed and bounce. This is a Team to watch next year as many of their players will still be in school.
