UMass Lowell win North East C’ship on Last Ball vs MIT
2018 Deryk Aaron Jodah Trophy Winner , new North East Champion UMass Lowell.
A thrilling last ball win by UMass Lowell vs MIT was the opposite result of last week’s Home and Away game between the two saw MIT win on the last ball. This time it was the Final of the 2018 North East Championship in NYC. 6 matches were Live Streamed with Scoring, Graphics and video by Cricclubs, Bedessie Sporting Goods was a sponsor. The recordings can be found on the American College Cricket Facebook page.
After the Championship a ‘Declaration of Honor’ was presented to American College Cricket Founder and President Lloyd Jodah from the Queens’ Borough President Melinda Katz, recognizing American College Cricket’s accomplishments and celebrating it’s return to NYC.
MIT played its first league game against Northeastern, which it lost despite a brilliant counterattacking half century from Usman Ayyaz. The second game however, against BU, resulted in the largest victory margin in the entire tournament and MIT were on the favorable side this time, beating BU by 75 runs. Akshat Agarwal spearheaded the batting effort with a 43 off 27 balls whereas the spin trio of Murthy Arelekatti, Sumit Aggarwal and Suhas S Kowshik spun a web around BU which they could never recover from. As a result, MIT finished second in the group of three and qualified for the semi final stage.
MIT’s semifinal game against UMass Boston resulted in MIT bowling the opposition out for a measly 98 thanks to an all round bowling effort from the pace quartet of Moiz Imam, Muhammad Jehangir Amjad, Akshat Agarwal and Usman Ayyaz. Anirudh Nambiar then held one end up while chasing, nearly getting a half century in the process and ensured MIT got to the target without much hassle.
UMass Boston had played well the previous day, winning both of their games in their 1st American College Cricket tournament. They defeated UMass Lowell by scoring 163 for 4, then bowling them out for 99.https://cricclubs.com/americancollegecricket/viewScorecard.do?matchId=565&clubId=3456
UMass Boston vs Yale had a thrilling finish with UMB winning by 2 runs on the last ball.
Pioneering club Boston University lost easily to MIT but had a good game vs Northeastern though losing. BU has been a leader in social media and is currently leading the Home and Away season.
MIT faced off against a team they had just beaten the previous weekend in a Home and Away game – UMass Lowell. Vishrant Tripathi and Moiz Imam got early wickets to restrict scoring at the beginning but UMass Lowell was able to weather the storm and put up a good total on the large, very slow outfield. Recent rain had made the outfield soggy, and the ball stopped wherever it landed, making 4s almost impossible. MIT responded well and was in control, when Lowell stated to turn things around, and it became a nail bitter, as MIT was never out of it, but Lowell kept getting closer. Eventually they won, by 2 runs on the last ball.
Northeastern was the defending Champion but some of their stars had graduated. Nevertheless the Huskies won both games on Sat, vs MIT and Boston
MIT faced off against a team they had just beaten the previous weekend in a Home and Away game – UMass Lowell. Vishrant Tripathi and Moiz Imam got early wickets to restrict scoring at the beginning but UMass Lowell was able to weather the storm and put up a good total on the large, very slow outfield. Recent rain had made the outfield soggy, and the ball stopped wherever it landed, making 4s almost impossible. MIT responded well and was in control, then got themselves in a spot of slight bother after a brilliant start, needing 65 runs off 9 overs. Vaikkunth Mugunthan and Keshav Gupta then produced a partnership of 51 runs to bring MIT close to the target. MIT couldn’t quite finish off the chase even after a handy half century from Vaikkunth Mugunthan,when Lowell stated to turn things around, and it became a nail bitter, as MIT was never out of it, but Lowell kept getting closer. Eventually they won, by 2 runs on the last ball.
UMass Lowell had come back from less than stellar games in the Group stages to take the Deryck Aaron Jodah Trophy for the 1st time.
FULL SCORES and VIDEOS are on the American College Cricket Facebook page.
By Lloyd Jodah and Keshav Gupta, MIT
