The 5 American College Cricket games broadcast so far in USA & Canada have been historic and groundbreaking – with 1 more to come for this Fall season – this Saturday at 7pm., York College vs NJIT.

No one else has so far even come close to televising domestic cricket in the USA and Canada. 

PENN STATE vs YORK COLLEGE :

 The University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) Cricket club has been one of the top teams in the Washington/Maryland area for years. They won the Washington Metropolitan Cricket Board (WMCB) league’s T20 tournament 3 years in a row, before changing leagues and joining the Washington Cricket League (WCL). 

by J.Desai

With a win over Taurids CC last Saturday, UMBC has made it to the playoffs of the Washington Cricket League Division 2. UMBC stands at 8-4-1.

UMBC started off the season with a washed out game, but not before they had scored 224 Runs, in their allotted 40 overs and reduced their opponents, Stars CC, to 35/2 in 7 overs. Rain intervened in the 8th over, and the match was called off. During the washed out match, Eraj Abidi scored 50 for UMBC.  

UMBC continued with the good form by winning next three matches. Captain Gurnish Singh led from the front by contributing useful 65 not out against Metro II. He followed his good form with an awesome 102 and took 3 wickets against Taurids CC to keep UMBC’s dominance in Division 2 of WCL. Samuel Lalzare weighed in against Urbana by scoring his first century (116 nout out), and took UMBC to the top of the division with a 3-0 record. 

UMBC suffered their first loss in the fifth match against Elite CC. UMBC’s bowling was unable to defend 201 against cautious Elite batting line-up. 

In the next match, UMBC came back strong by scoring 212 against Falcons CC. Rikin Parikh, under pressure and recovering from his leap of faith from 14000 feet the previous day, jet propelled to his score of 98. Gurnish, captain cool, finished it off by taking 4 wickets. With this performance, Gurnish was leading the All Rounders table in the league. 

UMBC lost its next game against the Fighters CC even though scoring 260, their highest score at that time, due to poor bowling performance. UMBC’s opening batsman, Digant Samant, scored his second half century in the losing effort. UMBC record was reduced to 4-2. 

UMBC’s strong batting line-up continued to dominate, and piled up 267, their highest score in the league, against the Potomac CC. Digant Samant, once again, made a strong statement by scoring his first century for UMBC. Vice-captain Chirag Vani, who aptly supported Digant by scoring his maiden half century (60). They were involved in the highest highest 4th wicket partnership of 186 runs for UMBC. 

UMBC lost the next match against AFCA by 36 runs as its batting, for the first time, failed perform up to its potential. UMBC’s batting line-up crashed landed with 145 all out. At this stage in the league, UMBC’s record was 5 wins, 3 losses and 1 no result (due to rain). 

UMBC increased their chances to make it to the playoffs by winning next two games comfortably against Hunters CC and Knights CC. Digant Samant scored another 50 against the Hunters to add to his tally of two Fifties and a Century. Samuel Lalzare followed it up by adding another fifty to his tally and taking the UMBC to a victory lane against Hunters by 8 wickets. 

UMBC followed up with their good run with a win against Knights CC by 6 wickets. Dhaval Vaghasia, UMBC leg spinner, bowled an awesome spell to take his first 4 wicket hall. He was supported well by the new opening bowler, Naga Perni, who took 3 wickets. Suryakant Sansare, top scored with 44, and Chirag Vani, scoring 32 not out, played cautiously to chase down the score of 170 comfortably. 

UMBC stood at 7-3 in the Division II, and had to face Metro II again, who are in the same group. UMBC lost this game as Metro II successfully chased down the target of 196 set by UMBC. The match was reduced to 30 overs because of the scorching heat, the hottest day of the season so far with the heat index of 120 degrees. 

Last Saturday, UMBC played their final match of their regular Division II matches against the Taurids CC. UMBC destroyed Taurids by allowing them a score of 95 all out in 22.1 overs. In its authoritative style, UMBC chased down the target, with a quickfire knock, in 13th over. 

UMBC will play their QuarterFinals game Sunday August 7th…….GO UMBC !  

In 1971 “Every Picture tells a Story” by Rock Legend Rod Stewart became the first album ever to top both the American & British Charts simultaneously. The album is “a mixture of rock, country, blues, soul, and folk ” and includes the huge hit “Maggie May” about many schoolboys’ fantasy.

Every picture from the 2011 American College Cricket Spring Break Championship tells a story about the effort of the members of American College Cricket to raise the profile of the game and bring it back into the American & Canadian mainstream – keep spreading the photos on Facebook, and the word.

Photos by Greg Uzelac (Northwestern) – College Media & College Cricket players may use.

Only started for the Southeast Championship, the cricket club at the University of Tampa, led by Kaushall Vaddiraj has already garnered attention in the school media. The team is eager to make an impact in the nationals, and go further than their cross town rivals the USF Bulls. The team has had valuable playing time on the Stadium pitches in recent months, and will feel at home.

The guys at University of Maryland Baltimore County return with a very strong record. Apart from reaching the Semi Finals of last year’s American College Cricket Championship, UMBC also won the WMCB league T20 tournament in Maryland, and performed well in the local 40 overs league as well. Stars like Raghav Bharadwarj and Eraj Abidi, under Sumeet Chordiya’s captaincy and Anand Patel’s Club Presidency, give UMBC a good chance at taking the Chanderpaul Trophy back to its original home state of Maryland.

Pioneering Boston University Cricket Club is a cornerstone of American College Cricket and in 2010 they were given the honor of playing the first college cricket match at the Cricket Stadium. In recognition of their role in bringing positive attention to their school, the team has received very generous funding from their administration. The team’s President and Captain is Ankush Chandra, and includes talented Hayat Khan, who is representative of a new breed of American cricket player, having played in the NYC high school (PSAL) and the NYPD United Cricket Leagues.

USC Trojans took the West Coast Championship, with a top score of 95 from Harsh Sowani and good batting by Duhyant Sharma.Tarun Sandhu, their Vice captain & Club President is also a 6’6 fast bowler, whose fluid runup and height can cause some nightmares for batsmen. The Trojans and Thunderbird School of Global Management will get the chance to renew their rivalry, as both teams are in the same group.

UMBC Roster for 2011 Nationals:

Sumeet Chordiya (c)
Rikin Parikh (vc)
Faisel Maniar
Ananth Ranga
Eraj Abidi
Anand Patel
Chirag Vani (w/k)
Raghav Bharadwaj
Gurnish Singh
Austin Aluvathingal
Dhaval Vaghasia
Naga Perni
Abhishek Pandey
Amarvir Brar
Viswanath Mulukuthla

BOSTON UNIVERSITY

Ankush Chandra-Captain
Salil Nanda- Vice captain
Hayat Khan
Shayaan MehdI
Tejas Atawane
Rohan Roy
Siddharth Kothari
Vidit Munshi
Abhishek Kanapuraju
Sathvik Seshadri
Muzammil Muhammad
Rajasekhar Vamaraju
Mandela Kiran

UNIVERSITY OF TAMPA

Kaushal Vaddiraj
Vatsal Vora
Nishchay Batra
Ali Azam
Ammad Hakim
Adithya Vuppala
Prakash V
Roshane Hewitt
Kunal Desai
Kushal Desai
Sahil Sheth
Naushad Ninzer
Abraham Azan
Sanket Gandhi
Ishan Patel

USC TROJANS Cricket team

1. Mishal Patel
2. Tarun Tyagi (C)
3. Srinivas Mohan
4. Harshad Sowani
5. Rishabh Nanda
6. Dushyant Sharma
7. Jeet Poonater
8. Tarun Sandhu
9. Thimmiah BS (WK)
10. Vikram Saini (WK)
11. Pranay Dua
12. Ketan Phaye
13. Arvin Varma – Manager

USC President Max Nikkias presenting a USC Trojans Cricket jersey to Ratan Tata, Chairman of Tata Group

UMBC’s Gurnish Singh with Shanae

Maryland in the morning,a bit of dew still around, as the first games of the American College Cricket Mid Atlantic Championship began.

Mid Atlantic Champions ! North Carolina State University !

Early Sunday outside the nation’s capital, as the rising sun burned golden in the morning sky, UMBC in their blues, and North Carolina State in red took to the field, NCSU batting first. Runs were hard to come by, as all of Maryland’s bowlers, Sumeet Chordiya, Raghav Bharadwarj, Austin Aluvathingal,Gurnish Singh and Faisal Maniar  kept it tight. Only Nikhil Talpallikar got the ball away, driving over midwicket for 4, and off driving for 6. Talipallikar scored 28 before being bowled by Aluvathingal. A middle order flurry by Ankit Mehta 18* and Sethu Gopal 16* took the Wolfpack to 113 for 7 at the end of their 20 overs. Watching, Shanae Strachan (Ms Teen Bhamas 2008) was thrilled,”This is exciting ! These 2 teams are great !”

UMBC smelled blood and closed in for the kill sending 2 of their best batsmen out to open Raghav Bharadwarj and Eraj Abidi. But Gopal swung one in from leg, and surprised Abidi by bowling him for a first ball duck ! Bharadwarj had flown in from Portland,Oregon for the Championship, having just graduated and moved to the West Coast (the eligibilty rules allow 2010 grads to play).

Gopal took 2 more quick wickets, Malegonkar 1, and UMBC was 26 for 4. Anand Patel 30 and Gurnish Singh 14 stopped the batting slide and for a while it looked as if UMBC would pull off the win ! Bhavani Hegde and Suhas Kumar struck back though with 2 wickets each to finish off UMBC for 99 runs in 19.2 overs ! Hiren Patel NCSU was game MVP.

TAKING ON MASON DOMINATION

An hour later North Carolina State batted first against George Mason University in the Finals of the 2010 American College Cricket Mid Atlantic Championship, Swapnil Gupta  and Talpallikar opened the batting for North Carolina and Gupta 15 played a glorious flick, and Talpallidar ,11 got a life on the long off boundary before driving beautifully through midwicket for 4. Gopal made 16 including a 6 over midwicket and a cover drive for 4.

Then Hashim Khan and Hamaad struck back for George Mason, each taking 2 wickets and NCSU was 58 for 5 after 12 overs ! 100 seemed an illusive target ! Brilliant fielding and accurate throws by GMU resulted in 2 run outs, and the batsmen had to be cautious in attempting runs. Nikhil Rao 7, Ankit Mehta 15 and Hiren Patel 17 batted intelligently though, taking singles to move the score along and North Carolina State was able to reach 115 off their 20 overs.

MAYBE IT WAS THE FULL MOON

The NCSU bowling attack had shown their depth and strength so whilst George Mason began confidently, they were soon losing wickets ! Hashim Khan,14 looked dangerous before Ankit Mehta clean bowled him. Anoop Nair came in at # 7 but batted like a specialist batsman, and looked as though he was going to win it for Mason. Newcomer Kaliyan 7 cracked a 6 and though it was by no means Mason domination, the George Mason team was getting happy. Then Mehta struck, bowling Nair ! a run out helped NCSU wrap up Mason for 97 runs and the North Carolina State University Wolfpack were the first Champions of the the Mid Atlantic Conference !

Shanae Strachan (Ms Teen Bahamas 2008) presented the Trophy (a special design with Cricketzone) to the Champions North Carolina State University as College and USA star Adrian Gordon looked on. American College Cricket President Lloyd Jodah praised the Champions and the participating teams, saying,
“It’s great to have all the teams that participated as partners in the college cricket movement, bringing cricket-the original American and Canadian sport, back into the mainstream, together with our strategic partners, BIG League USA. Let’s keep it up – the innings has only just begun !
Purdue University won the E Gordon Gee Trophy at the Midwest Championship, Rutgers won the Northeast Championship now, congratulations to North Carolina State for winning the Mid Atlantic Championship!”

Adrian Gordon,Lloyd Jodah and Nino DiLoreto selected Ankit Mehta as the Finals MVP. Mehta took 3 wickets and top scored for the Champions.

Sheldon Ellis, President of the Washington Cricket League (one of the oldest and largest leagues in the USA) had heart surgery a couple of days before, but called America College Cricket President Lloyd Jodah to say “I wish I could have been there….what American College Cricket is doing is extremely important, its really great for USA cricket. On behalf of the WCL, keep up the great work.”

Article & Photos may be used by College Cricketers for personal use, or Cricket Club promotion. College Media may also use article & photos. All others contact Lloyd Jodah.



The University of Maryland (Baltimore County), UMBC, website reported on the UMBC Cricket Club’s efforts at the 2010 American College Cricket Spring Break Championship. Now even greater recognition has come to the Club, also known as 22 yards – The UMBC Cricket Club is a major story on the UMBC Homepage !

UMBC Crciket Club at the 2010 American College Cricket Championship

This is the kind of recognition we urge all of our College cricket clubs to get for the game. Many of you have  been doing your bit, keep it up !

Great work by Anand Patel (Club President & All American 2nd Team), Chirag Vani (VP),Sumeet Chordiya (Captain).

READ STORY HERE:  http://www.umbc.edu/

As some of you, our College Cricketers graduate, the words of this song by Rod Stewart “When we were the New Boys” clearly express what must be going through through your minds, as you part from your friends and fellow cricketers - Listen 

 
Rod Stewart – When We Were The New Boys @ Yahoo! Video

Graduated 2010

We wish you well and as pioneers you are always part of the American

College Cricket family.

-

The Graduate was released in 1967, and won the Best Picture Oscar. It starred Dustin Hoffman,Anne Bancroft & Katherine Ross.

College Cricketers are among the brightest and the best. You go on to major positions in medicine, finance,  IT, engineering, law and other professions, but sometimes you need a little help finding that first position.

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