Independence Cup
(By:
Nafis Ahmed, Commonwealth C.C)
Venue: Wrentham II
Eagles Cricket Club is a real outfit, with a manifesto, a mantra and a motivation of their own. They staged the first ever Independence Cup in Massachusetts, namely to celebrate Independence of this country, but really to make use of the off days we got from MSCL to celebrate the birth of this country.
It was a great effort from the first time organizers – nice ground, well marked boundaries, decent surface, a makeshift but adequate pavilion, endless supply of Gatorade and to top it all, spicy pizza. The format was simple, with four teams vying for the trophy with each having to win the two possible games to lift the trophy.
Date: July 3, 2004
CCC took the field against MIT after Fazal lost the toss. Amit and Yasir opened the innings for MIT and immediately asserted themselves against the bowling of Sanjay and Deva. Yasir was in a punishing form as he played with wonderful fluency to give MIT a great start. Amit (8) departed soon but was replaced by the seasoned Vinay Kanitkar. This was the best session of the game for MIT where both batsmen batted with aplomb. Vinay (31) departed to an excellent catch by Ashish at midoff off Peter Sobha when the score stood at 83 for 2. At this point Commonwealth bowling took charge of the situation and none of the remaining batsmen from MIT could reach double figures. Meanwhile, Yasir compiled a wonderful half-century (61) and was out hitting the ball to even more disastrous effect. MIT ended up with 137 for 9 in 25 overs.
Commonwealth started the run chase with a left and right combination of Basu and Fazal; the latter had promoted himself in the batting order in order to finish his batting in an attempt to get back home to his newborn daughter (congratulations Fazal on your newborn). Basu looked good and timed the ball well, but ended up playing one back to the bowler, Nirnay, who completed a fantastic caught and bowled to dismiss the left hander at 6. Venkat took the place of Basu but remained largely invisible, as by now Fazal had settled down and was smacking the ball to all parts of the ground, with a ferocity that is only his trademark. He completely overshadowed the other batsmen; the bowlers had no respite and the fielders could only fetch the ball from the remotest parts of the ground. He plundered the bowling and hit six sixes and as many fours to compile an awesome 93 in 76 balls. CCC won the game by 8 wickets with 25 balls to spare. To their credit MIT bowled well in the first session, where they had CCC pinned down to 42 runs in 12 overs. But after drinks Fazal scored 44 runs in just 3 overs and the balance of the game was forever shifted and resulted in an impressive win for CCC. Fazal celebrated the birth of his second child with an imperious performance that made for pleasurable viewing.