College Champions in exciting game vs NY Under 23
It wasn’t only the Transformers invading NY this final June weekend,2009 American College Champions Montgomery College also came,from Maryland, to battle New York’s best young cricketers as part of.the 2nd Annual Romano Memorial Cricket Event. The 2 game Event was organized by friends of Ramano Rafeek Sahid to honor the young cricketer who died in December 2007 in a car accident.
The first game pitted 2 Teams of mostly Under 19 players from the New York and Connecticut Regions against each other. Lakey’s XI batted first and could only muster 81 runs. Andre “Rusty” Kirton took 3 wickets for 12 runs off 3.1 overs, whilst Akeem Baksh had 2 for 15 off 3 overs.Rusty’s XI was propelled to an easy victory in 13.2 overs by All American Greg Sewdial 23* and Frances Mendonca 27 *. .
In the 2nd Match Manager Lester Hooper put together a star-studded NY Region Under 23 Team to take on the American College Champions Montgomery College. Commissioner of the NYC PSAL High School Cricket League Bassett Thompson came to see the game,as did former Guyana star Deryck Kallicharran. American College Cricket President Lloyd Jodah was also present. Megan Fox and Shilpa Shetty was busy elsewhere but some lovely young women were in attendance.
Though without 2 of their top batsmen, and not having played together since winning the Chanderpaul Trophy Montgomery College drove 5 hours then began batting within an hour of arriving..Aamir Choudhury looked good, hitting a 6 and a 4 in his 30. The 6 being a drive off the backfoot.But the fiery fast bowler Casper Davis together with Clarke kept the College to 47 for 4.
Captain Adil Bhatti (60) got off the mark with a delightful flick, and together with Wal Syed (24) put on 84 runs in 9 overs. Bhatti, in Shahid Affridi mode, was imperious, striking the ball to all parts of the field. As is usually the case with American cricket, the outfield was rough and slow, so it was hard to get to the boundary along the ground, so Bhatti took 6 sixes off the NY attack. He hooked over squareleg, drove over midwicket, longon, longoff and the bowler, in a smorgasbord of shots all around the wicket.Like a Transformer Bhatt laid into the NY bowling. Bhatti wants to play for the USA in the next T20 World Cup, and if he keeps displaying the form he has been this year well….who knows ? He had also batted well in the American College Cricket Spring Break Championship;
Wali Syed had a 4 and a 6 in his 24 before he and Bhatti were caught off Davis. The rest of the batting surrendered like the French Army and Montgomery ended with 147 off their 20 overs.Caspar Davis, who had taken 5 wickets in the only innings he played in the recent National Under 19 Tournament, today had 3 for 20 off 4 overs.Rusty Kirton bowled well for 3 for 16 off 4 overs. Keon Lake felt the brunt of Bhatti’s assault, getting 1 wicket for 29 runs off 4 overs. The College Champions impressed with their running between the wickets, though Usain Bolt wasn’t there to see it.
Bhatti and Choudhury were the most effective Montgomery bowlers against the NY batsmen and the match remained nail-bitingly close going into the penultimate over. Nearly all the NY batsmen got into double figures with Francis Mendonca topscoring with 32 ( two 6’s, one 4).
