USA win Series VII vs Canada in 1844 Game 175th Celebration
The USA team with Lloyd and Hassan
With a last minute cancellation by the Airbnb host, the scramble to find a replacement put the USA team some distance away from Moosa Stadium but nevertheless Coach Amir Saddique utilized the reduced practice time to put the players through some drills which also helped bring some team cohesion.
Only 2 of the players had played together before, as otherwise they came from different universities from as far as Boston, Fresno, Orlando and elsewhere.
Game 1 was scheduled for 2 pm but suddenly the rain came from seemingly nowhere, and the match was reduced to 16 overs. USA batted first and the pair of Captain Neel Patel (South Alabama) and Krithik Udayshakar (Florida Tech) . Despite the slow outfield Neel smashed the bowling all around the wicket, with confidence, for 6 fours and 2 sixes whilst the steady Krithik held his end until he was bowled by the left arm Kalpit Patel (Laurier. Sujal Patel ( South Alabama) was unlucky to be out lbw on one later seen to be missing the leg stump. Advait Varadarajan Carnegie Mellon made a quick 33 not out to take USA to 129 for 5 off 16 overs. Afnan Ayubi Laurier took 2 for 21.
Canada, with LLoyd
What followed was surprising as the USA bowlers dominated Canada’s batting. USA bowled 8 bowlers, each playing their role, starting with Sujal Patel taking the 1st 2 wickets. Nitant Kakar Everest and Muqeet Ahmad (UMass Lowell) took 2 each whilst Abhishek Raj (UH) and Husnain Bashir (UMD) took 1 each. Shuja Navqi (UH) bowled a tight opening spell. Canada fell for 40 runs.
GAME 2
Sunday – the Canadians were bound to come back strong, but again USA batted first, and Neel 72 and Krithik batted as if they had no place to go, piling up an unbroken opening partnership of 150, despite an outfield made very slow in many areas because of overnight rain.
As Canada went in to bat, USA’s only worry was the outfield drying out and helping the Canadian batting. Ansar Khan decided to ignore the outfield and smashed 5 sixes in his 51, giving Canada a great start. Rohan Kundlass 19, played cover drives worthy of being named after Rohan Kanhai whilst Hassan Mirza (Ryerson threatened for while with 17. When Ansar went at 103 for 4 off 13.5 Canada was definitely on a good trajectory to win, but dampened by his loss. In the final 5 overs the required run rate kept going higher, though still within possibility and 26 was need off the last 2 overs. However, Jean Paul who is usually a big hitter couldn’t get the ball away and USA won by 15 runs. Nitant took 4 wickets for 24.
GAME 3
Canada won the toss and chose to bat and Ansar Khan 28 and Rohan Kundlass 18 got them off to a good start of 41 in 6 overs with Ansar hitting 6s before Husnain Bashir bowled the only Maiden of the weekend, to slow things down. Kamran 21 and Rohan took the score to 72 off 8.3 overs and Canada was sitting pretty. But then Muqeet 3 for 8, Abhishek Raj 2 for 25 struck and it was 94 for 6 after 14.3. Once more Jean Paul 22 not out found it difficult to get the bowlers away and Canada ended on 115 for 6 – a total that was difficult to defend.
USA rested Krithik from opening to give the other batsmen a chance but the in form Neel Patel looked set to get his 3rd 50 of All Star Weekend before getting run out because of a mixup with his partner. Otherwise USA batted sensibly, knowing the total was not challenging . USA reached 116 for in 18.2 overs winning comfortably and sealing the 3-0 Series win, just as they did at Moosa Stadium in Jan 2017.
The series was Livestreamed courtesy of Cricclubs, with American College Cricket Founder and President Lloyd Jodah doing commentary with Obaid Ullah Baber and Hassan Mirza assisting. Some players also came on to chat about All Star Weekend, their teams etc. Moosa Stadium was once again the venue due to the generosity of Sakhi Muhammad whose groundstaff gave the players a pitch with something for batsmen and bowlers. Coach Amir also assisted with photography.
‘In celebrating that historic 1844 cricket match between Canada and USA, our players play extremely competitively, but at the same time are extremely friendly with each other, like our 2 countries are. Bonds are formed that’ll last a long time and make this event really special. Hassan Mirza is one of the most popular players everywhere, and his and Obaid’s work with Canadian College Cricket is important to the success of this Series. Neel proved to be an excellent Captain, whilst Coach Amir really helped the team. The Series is now tied 3-3, with 1 tied Series, because of rain, so it’ll be thrilling in May in Toronto when Series VIII takes place’ Lloyd Jodah, American College Cricket Founder and President summed up.
