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GCC-ODI, Game # 17, 2001
Edmonton and District Cricket League
Howe Cup Knock-Out Tournament - Finals
Greenfield v Millwoods B Cricket Club
Victoria Park, Edmonton
Sunday, October 07, 2001 (45-over match)

Result : Millwoods B won by 31 runs.

Toss : Greenfield
Umpires : Osborne Providence & Malcom Cohen
Greenfield MoM : Arvind Prasad
Scorer: Mahasri Weerasooriya

Greenfield Innings

How Out

Bowler

 Runs 4's 6's
V Subramanian run out 4 0 0
A Prasad run out (+Kasif) 75 2 0
J Rae c & b b J Sidhu 2 0 0
*A Rauf c A Ali c S Ahmed 20 2 0
S Turner c A Hussain b P Sandhu 22 3 0
S Barran st +K Alam b K Mahmood 21 0 2
H Razak b K Mahmood 0 0 0
Z Marikar run out 3 0 0
R Maikala run out 3 0 0
P Arumugam not out 3 0 0
+R Nair not out 0 0 0
EXTRAS : b 3, lb 5, w 26, nb 4 38
TOTAL : (for 9 wickets, in 45 overs) 191 RR: 4.24
 
Bowler O M R W wd nb
Salman Choudhary 7 1 35 0 9 0
Saeed Ahmed 9 0 37 1 8 1
Jagroop Sidhu 9 1 22 1 6 1
Parminder Sandhu 9 1 40 1 1 2
Kahlid Mahmood 9 1 41 2 2 0
*Rana Asif 2 0 8 0 0 0

 

Millwoods B Innings

How Out

Bowler

 Runs 4's 6's
A Hussain b *A Rauf 27 2 0
+K Alam c S Barran b R Maikala 36 1 0
*R Asif lbw b *A Rauf 0 0 0
A Ali c A Prasad b R Maikala 52 6 0
S Choudhary st +R Nair b S Barran 27 2 1
E Khan b *A Rauf 16 1 1
S Ahmed not out 7 0 0
P Sandhu not out 3 0 0
EXTRAS : b 3, lb 2, w 16, nb 3 24
TOTAL : (for 6 wickets, in 38.4 overs) 192 RR: 4.98
 
Bowler O M R W wd nb
Ram Maikala 6 0 44 2 6 0
Jonathan Rae 6 0 24 0 3 0
*Arees Rauf 9 1 29 3 2 0
Prashan Arumugam 2 0 15 0 0 3
Sunil Barran 3.4 0 26 1 2 0
Arvind Prasad 7 0 32 0 1 0
Venkat Subramanian 5 0 17 0 2 0
             
Match Report by Arvind Prasad:
'Howe Cup Finals - The Jinx continues'

Greenfield made to the finals of Howe Cup, the knock out format of E&DCL, for the third year in a row in a major upset victory over Millwoods. Millwoods B, on the other hand, beat Victoria Park in the other semi-final to make it to the finals. The weather was nice and warm, a good change, after a few cold days earlier in the week.

Greenfield had the same team as in the semi-finals, with Rajeev desperately wanting to play even with a dangerously injured knee. Millwoods B had the same composition as Millwoods A, except three players, which included the captain of the A team.

Greenfield won the toss by default, when the required number of players of the opposition did not show up to the grounds by the stipulated time. Greenfield opted to bat first, playing to their strength of putting up a decent score and defending it, with perhaps the best bowling attack in the league. Venkat and Arvind opened the batting for Greenfield. All along the Howe cup the two openers had looked very solid, providing two half centuries and a century stand in the three games played. Venkat, ominously, looked out of touch as he mistimed two pull shots, his favorite shots, which were put down. Perhaps that was the sign of things to follow during the course of the day. He soon perished going for a suicidal single. Jonny was promoted as number three in view of Rajeev’s painful knee injury. Arvind and Jonny played patiently for a few overs, trying to get the shine off the ball. Jonny played well, considering the fact that he was promoted up the order by a long way and was facing an almost new ball. He fell driving uppishly and giving a return catch to Jagroop. At 25 for 2 off 12, the situation was grim for Greenfield, looking at the past batting collapses, and more recently, losing 9 wickets for 88 runs in the semi finals against Millwoods A. Arees played the captains’ part, as he time and again had mid-field conferences with Arvind to ensure that there was no further wicket loss. The two played slow but sensible cricket and Greenfield went back for the drinks break at 68 for 2 off 25. A very low score indeed, but the important point was that Arees was still at the wicket and almost the entire batting still to come. As expected, after the break, the batsmen went after the bowling. In the 28th over with the score at 81, Arees was caught at square-leg boundary. Steve came in next and made his intentions clear with a glorious square-drive. Arvind and Steve put on 40 odd runs at almost run a ball before Steve was caught at sweeper cover, going for a lofted shot. In came Sunil and smacked Salman for two massive sixes within a space of three balls. One sailed over mid-wicket and the other went flying over the point boundary! Salman, by now, had enough of Greenfield batting and by this time had started swearing and verbally abusing the batsmen after each ball he delivered. He was wise enough to do that in his mother tongue, since it was a foreign language for both the umpires and they could not take any action against him and other in the team. Arvind, in the meantime, showing determination and grit completed his half-century. A welcome relief for him after he had missed out on a previous opportunity couple of games earlier. In the 40th over, Sunil was stumped, as he jumped out to play a huge shot. With 5 overs remaining and still some batting to come, Greenfield was hopeful of crossing 200. But there hopes were dashed when Haseeb was out in a couple of deliveries and Zaufer and Ram were run out. Arvind was still around when he was joined by Prashan. They had to ensure that Greenfield was not bowled out before the stipulated quota. They safely played till the final over when Arvind was run-out after anchoring one end for the entire innings. Rajeev negotiated the last two balls of the innings and Greenfield innings ended at 191 for 9 off 45. In hind-sight, 4 run-outs was probably yet another bad-luck sign for Greenfield.

Still a good score, although another 30 runs would have looked better. But Greenfield batsmen had made sure that a chase for 225 had not ended in 150 all out, as happened in their semi-finals.

Adeel and Kashif opened the innings for Millwoods against Ram’s pace and Jonny’s swing. Before Greenfield could realize Millwoods were 47 for no loss off 8 overs. The initial momentum that the two openers gave, swung the balance heavily in favor of Millwoods. Arees had to make a bowling change and Prashan got Adeel to loft straight to Haseeb at mid-on. Lady-luck continued to evade Greenfield, as it was called a no-ball. Arees brought himself to the attack and Adeel not learning form his previous mistake, went for a shot with his head high up and was clean bowled. Arees, leading with example, got his counterpart trapped leg-before within two balls. Greenfield was back in the game with Millwoods 57 for 2. Millwoods decided to reserve their recognized batsmen for later and sent in Ahzum, a junior player. Kashif and Ahzum, stayed for a long time. Playing and missing at times, executing authoritative shots on another. Ahzum was lucky not to have been given LBW off Arees and Kashif was beaten all ends up by Arvind and was left stranded out of his crease. But the ball had beaten the keeper too and he survived. There would be a series of dry overs followed by a spate of runs in one over and the pressure would be released. Millwoods went to drinks break at 117 for 2. A very impressive score indeed, needing another 75 off 20 overs with 8 wickets in hand. Greenfield was desperately looking for a breakthrough and finally Kasif was caught at square-leg by Sunil off Ram with the 129 on the board. Ahzum completed a well-deserved half-century in the next over, but was out immediately, pulling straight to Arvind at deep-fine leg. Salman and Ejaz were at the crease together now and Salman survived two chances both off Venkat’s bowling. The two best fielders of Greenfield had difficulty in holding on to his catches after getting their hands to the ball. Another ominous sign for Greenfield as a wicket at that point might have put pressure on Millwoods, especially since Ejaz did not stay long. There are no ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ in cricket and Millwoods made it without any further loss.

The jinx for Greenfield continued. They had lost the third Howe Cup in a row. Looking back, one realizes that Millwoods batted really well and took the Greenfiled bowlers to task. Perhaps, Greenfield was not prepared for such an on-slaught, primarily for two reasons. Out of 20 odd games GCC has played, GCC has batted first on 60 percent or more of their games and only once before their bowlers had been punished like this. In fact, they had been successful in defending as low a score as 145. Also, having played hard for four months, perhaps the players were mentally exhausted to put up a good fight. Or perhaps, it was a combination of both the reasons. Whatever the case may be, GCC lost and the Cup still eludes them.

The season is over now and it is time for thanks-giving and soul-searching. A big Thanks on behalf of all the players to the wonderful GCC executive members and their family, Hifli, Chitra, Mike, Priyani, Gene and all of the kids. GCC truly is a Family. Its amazing the amount of affection and care they shower on the players. Thanks also to Hemant, Trevor, Charlie, Rashmi, Stacey, Melanie and Kim. All of them have followed each and every game with as much enthusiasm and genuine feelings for the team as only they could have. Their contribution to GCC’s success this year is gratefully appreciated. Thanks also to various players who played for GCC from time to time – Salman, Fahad, Ahzum, Faraz and Eric.

Time for soul-searching too. Looking back at the results, GCC has a reason to be happy, they have retained their place in ‘A’ division, beat the best teams in the league in the process, made it to the finals of Howe Cup yet again and most importantly, GCC is a TEAM now in true spirits. The players feel happy for each other and that’s a very important ingredient for a team to be successful. GCC found new players this season, Steve, Jonny, Arvind, Haseeb and Trevor. GCC lost their matches too, and quite a few of them at that. Not because they played badly or the potential is not there. Sometimes the opponents outplayed them, which is natural, at other times the weather Gods conspired, on few occasions GCC bore the brunt of human errors in part of the umpires and even sheer bad-luck. It’s all part of the game and there is no reason to be dis-heartened. In fact, the three close games that they lost could have gone either way and GCC would have ended up 3 rd in the league! I guess, the records, doesn’t truly reflect the quality of cricket played by GCC players.

Arees had a great run with the captaincy and all the players showed their true potential at one point or another. Two of its players even made it to the top five in the batting and bowling departments bears testimony to the in the entire league. Steve showed why the Aussies are world champions and Venkat showed what correct technique can achieve. Ram showed his consistency with the pace he generates and Jonny is the Sultan of Swing. Sunil yet again got GCC their first win with his fearless batting and bowling and Zaufer showed age is no limit for guts and determination and not to mention ‘Mr. Consistent’ Rajeev and his never-say-die approach. Prashan and Arvind kept on deceiving the batsmen with their innocuous looking deliveries. Haseeb and Trevor joined very late in the season and GCC is looking forward to seeing them come to true form next season. One hopes that the next season brings unprecedented success to the team!