West Virginia win 3 Nationals in a Row !
Being shut down in 2020 the day be American College Cricket Semis & Finals were to be broadcast on SONY LIV in India was disastrous…. but we will get back to there. This 2022 Nationals was our Comeback and we decided to finish the 2020 Championship, and so it was we had the 2020 & 2022 Semis, then on Sunday March 20 we had 2 Finals: 2022 Finals then 2020 Finals.
We played 14 games in Broward Stadium over 5 days, and also used an outside field, where American College Cricket began in March 2009. On Friday it was West Virginia U vs U of Florida, then Arkansas State vs Pitt.
West Virginia had won the 2019 Final on the penultimate ball against NJIT – possibly our top batting side ever. It was exciting to see if they could make it 3 National titles in a row ! So wen WVU did it this past weekend, it was an amazing record that it would be hard for any team to beat ! As it was both victories would be tough fights with the 2022 Final vs Arkansas State.
WEST VIRGINIA vs U of FLORIDA – 2020 Semis
Sohail Choudhary 86 and Raj Shekhar 52 (42 balls, 3 4s & 3 6s) powered WVU to 178/7 in their 20 overs. Sohail’s 86 was in 56 balls, 11 fours & 3 sixes. It included his trademark powerful cuts and is now the highest score by an American College Cricket player in the Stadium !
The Gators struggled and WVU Captain Sai Satish 3 for 12 and Deepesh Madala 3 for 33 dominated for the WVU win as UF was all out for 93.
ARKANSAS STATE vs PITT – 2020 Semis
PITT was sent into bat and didn’t get going, being all out for 82 in 14.3. 4 ASU bowlers took 2 wickets each:Navdeep Maan 2 for 10,Sankalpe Decalte 2 for 13, Sam Das 2 for 20, & Mohnish Kumar 2 for 26.An amazing 50* in 39 balls, 4 fours 2 6s, by Divya Patel took the Red Wolves to victory !
PITT vs U of FLORIDA – 2022 Semis
Gators won the toss & sent PITT in to bat. They got off to a great start, with an opening partnership of 41 before V Shanker was out for 17. Ishaan Bansal made 55 before he was out for 55 and PITT was 110 for 2 off 16.5. They had not capitalized on the great start but were still in a good position but another wicket fell & Pratik had to retire hurt so they finished on 130 for 4.The Gators’ openers Saroop Sandhu 24 * Captain Mayank Gangwar 28 gave a good start, and Gaurav Dahiya 35 and Pratush Brahma ensured they got the victory, though it came down to the final over.
