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GCC-ODI, Game # 16, 2001
Edmonton and District Cricket League
Howe Cup Knock-Out Tournament - Semi Finals
Greenfield v Millwoods Cricket Club
Victoria Park, Edmonton
Sunday, September 30, 2001 (45-over match)
Result : Greenfield won by 31 runs.
Toss : Greenfield
Umpires : Robert Bowen & Malcom Cohen
Greenfield MoM : Jonathan Rae
Scorer: Mahasri Weerasooriya |
| Greenfield Innings |
How Out |
Bowler |
Runs |
4's |
6's |
| V Subramanian |
run out (Adeel, +Kasif) |
27 |
1 |
1 |
| A Prasad |
c R Ahmed |
b P Sandhu |
27 |
1 |
0 |
| P Arumugam |
c +K Alam |
b S Choudhary |
2 |
0 |
0 |
| *A Rauf |
lbw |
b P Sandhu |
21 |
1 |
1 |
| S Turner |
|
b Saeed Ahmed |
11 |
0 |
0 |
| H Razak |
c V Muttoo |
b K Mahmood |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| +R Nair |
not out |
|
0 |
0 |
0 |
| S Barran |
|
b K Mahmood |
3 |
0 |
0 |
| Z Marikar |
|
b V Muttoo |
16 |
0 |
1 |
| R Maikala |
c +K Alam |
b V Muttoo |
5 |
0 |
0 |
| J Rae |
run out (+Kasif) |
|
1 |
0 |
0 |
| EXTRAS : b 1, lb 4, w 25, nb 2 |
32 |
|
| TOTAL : (all out, in
41.1 overs) |
145 |
RR: 3.53 |
| Bowler |
O |
M |
R |
W |
wd |
nb |
| Ghulam Murtaza |
8.1 |
0 |
28 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
| Vijay Muttoo |
8 |
3 |
39 |
2 |
3 |
0 |
| Salman Choudhary |
5 |
0 |
16 |
1 |
9 |
0 |
| Parminder Sandhu |
9 |
2 |
16 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
| Khalid Mahmood |
6 |
1 |
28 |
2 |
7 |
0 |
| Saeed Ahmed |
5 |
1 |
13 |
1 |
3 |
1 |
| Millwoods Innings |
How Out |
Bowler |
Runs |
4's |
6's |
| A Hussain |
lbw |
b J Rae |
11 |
1 |
0 |
| Shaeed Ahmed |
c Z Marikar |
b R Maikala |
2 |
0 |
0 |
| R Ahmed |
c +R Nair |
b J Rae |
15 |
0 |
0 |
| Saeed Ahmed |
c *A Rauf |
b J Rae |
2 |
0 |
0 |
| K Mahmood |
c +R Nair |
b J Rae |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| *J Sidhu |
c & b |
b S Barran |
24 |
2 |
0 |
| S Choudhary |
c J Rae |
b A Prasad |
3 |
0 |
0 |
| G Murtaza |
c +R Nair |
b S Barran |
17 |
2 |
0 |
| V Muttoo |
lbw |
b *A Rauf |
10 |
0 |
0 |
| +K Alam |
run out (Ram, *Arees) |
9 |
0 |
0 |
| P Sandhu |
not out |
|
7 |
0 |
0 |
| EXTRAS : b 0, lb 2, w 11, nb 1 |
14 |
|
| TOTAL : (all out, in
36.4 overs) |
114 |
RR: 3.12 |
| Bowler |
O |
M |
R |
W |
wd |
nb |
| Ram Maikala |
8 |
0 |
30 |
1 |
6 |
0 |
| Jonathan Rae |
9 |
1 |
25 |
4 |
3 |
3 |
| Arvind Prasad |
6 |
0 |
19 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
| *Arees Rauf |
4.4 |
0 |
14 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
| Sunil Barran |
6 |
0 |
14 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
| Prashan Arumugam |
3 |
0 |
10 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
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Match
Report by Jonathan Rae:
A number of players were hurting with injury but happy on the Monday after
the Howe Cup Semi-Final. And proud!
It was a sunny day, with temperatures in the high teens, but it seemed
warmer, perhaps due to the atmosphere around the team. There was air of
business about Greenfield on the morning of the semi-final and Rajeev's
idea of a breakfast for everyone set the tone for the day, team spirit and
camaraderie. Just about everyone connected with Greenfield turned up, and
the mood was set. The good luck charm of Melanie and her cookies were
there and there was no way that Greenfield could fail.
Captain Arees gave a motivational speech in the dressing room, and all
eleven players looked calm and focused. The emotional speech of Ram was
particularly good as he asked us to play well, to give everything we had
on the field as he did not want this to be his last game for the green and
gold. Both were successful.
Greenfield won the toss and after a short discussion decided to bat. The
day was getting hotter, and Millwoods were getting frustrated. They did
not have the mental capacity to come back from adversity. Openers Venkat
and Arvind looked confident again, after their excellent performance in
the Quarter-Final match last weekend. They got off to a tremendous start.
With Venkat’s straight bat and Arvind’s deflecting balls in his usual
manner, Millwoods bowlers were frustrated. One bowler in particular was
Vijay Muttoo. Murtaza’s outswing caused some problems for the Greenfield
batsman, but Muttoo pitched far too many balls short of a length. The shot
of the day was definitely the first six of Venkat’s life, hitting Muttoo
to the square leg boundary. This brought some howls of delight from the
crowd. (Ram was particularly pleased considering his bet earlier in the
season involving wearing a dress, if Venkat ever hit a six). Soon, both
bowlers, Muttoo and Murtaza were taken off the attack in favor of slower
and more accurate bowlers. Unfortunately a mix up with Arvind, Venkat was
run out for an impressive 27. Arees hid the injured Rajeev down the
batting order and Prashan was promoted, after his fine performance in
quarter-finals. He was caught behind shortly afterwards, trying to drive a
wide ball off Salman. Greenfield lost two quick wickets within mere four
runs. Some stability and control came to Greenfield when Arees came to the
crease. Again he looked to take control of the attack. Arees hit a mighty
six and a four off Khalid Mahmood in two balls. Arvind was next to go,
playing a ball from Parminder in the air to mid-wicket. The ball dropped
short of the fielder, but the fielder, Rasheed, scooped the ball off from
the ground and Millwoods rather disgracefully appealed for a cheap catch.
After a consultation, between the umpires and Rashid, Arvind was given out
caught, and the first injustice against Greenfield was committed. The
Greenfield misery compounded when Arees was given out leg before to the
same bowler when he was at least a foot outside off stump playing a shot.
The un-sportsmanship of the fielding side and the dubious decision from
the umpires made Greenfield players starting to doubt in themselves. But
they persevered in the spirit that was built during the season. Rajeev
limped to the crease, and after facing several balls requested a runner.
The request was turned down by Millwoods captain, mainly listening to the
voices of youth, Adeel, Kasif and Salman. Immediately following this
Rajeev retired hurt, as he was in obvious pain and could not run. With a
steady fall of wickets, Steve and Zaufer were the only other batsman to
get into double figures, Haseeb mis-timed a powerful shot to “cow corner”,
Steve played on, and Sunil, after pulling a thigh muscle, was clean
bowled. Sunil getting injured was bad for Greenfield, as he is
instrumental to their bowling attack.
Zaufer was the next to go after playing some good attacking shots.
Irritating appalling by the wicketkeeper Kasif played a part, appealing
unnecessarily before Zaufer could play the ball breaking his consentration,
was out, off the bowling of Muttoo. Rajeev heroically came to the crease
again, to play out the final overs. An untimely decision of walking out of
his crease by Jonny wrapped up the Greenfield innings almost 5 overs
early. Kasif was again involved, rattling the batsman, and though a cheap
act in his part, although he was perfectly entitled to remove the bails
and run him out. Greenfield was all out for a disappointing 145.
Yet Greenfield was determined not to let the lack of sporting behavior of
their opposition go unpunished. Arees asked the players to give all they
have in a do or die fashion on the field and to cheer and encourage
everyone and keep positive in their cricket, bowlers to keep their line
and length and fielders to concentrate 100% on every ball. That is exactly
what Greenfield did. Although hampered by injury two of our key players,
Sunil and Rajeev, all players rose to the occasion.
With two overs to the tea break, Ram and Jonny took the new ball, bowling
at opposite ends as usual. Amongst cheering, the Greenfield opening
bowlers Jonny and Ram bowled with fire and speed at the pathetic looking
Millwoods openers. Bowlers were nervous, but determined to do their best
for the team. The usually excellent Rajeev was fielding in obvious pain at
second slip while Arees kept wicket but all was about to change. Opening
with Jonny, Ram bowled a short and wide ball, this was slashed by Shaeed
to Zaufer at backward point. As fielders were turning to chase the ball,
Zaufer timed his jump perfectly and plucked the ball out of the air to
give Greenfield a dream start. The catch was difficult, it bruised
Zaufer’s hand. This was the beginning of an exciting game. When Rasheed
came to the crease the pressure was on, and first ball he slashed to the
safe hands of Rajeev. Hampered by injury, and fielding at a different
position he dropped the catch. Arees’ stay as wicketkeeper was a short
one, as Rajeev took the gloves, spurred on by his frustration. Adeel was
lucky not to catch an edge in the next over, playing away from his body,
and the game paused for the tea break, with Millwoods on 6-1.
Greenfield used the break to get some rest, talk things over and start
pumping themselves up for the restart. Captain Arees told the team again
and again, that we were not going to roll over, as we had a good chance of
victory if we gave our 110%. The team went back onto the field fully
focused and confidant. After a couple of very uncomfortable overs the next
wicket fell, Adeel was trapped leg before. Adeel was one of their star
batsmen. He is one of the players who did not play the game in the true
cricketing spirit. It was particularly pleasing to see him stand there and
question the umpire when he was blatantly out. Zaufer helped him out at
that point, and pointed him in the direction of the pavilion. At 22-2
Greenfield was in a good position. Next to go was Saeed, he was caught at
short extra cover by Arees. The skipper’s words were about to come true.
Millwoods did not have the mental toughness to get through the pressure
that was put on by Greenfield. With just two further runs on the board it
was Khalid that edged an outswinger behind to Rajeev.
Millwoods added ten more runs and Rajeev took his second catch, still
immaculate despite his injury, with Rasheed this time edging a ball
behind. The time for spin had come and after good spells by Ram without
much luck, was removed and Arvind was brought into the attack. He bowled
with his usual turn, flight and guile, and this proved to be too much for
the next batsman Salman to handle, as he sent the ball to Jonny at long
leg. Millwoods were 46-6 and finally starting to realize that they were in
trouble. Stability was brought to Millwoods innings and frustration to
Greenfield when Murtaza came to the crease. Together with their captain
Jatinder, they slowly accumulated runs, and dragged Millwoods out of a
desperate situation. But bowlers Arvind, Arees and another hero of the
hour Sunil kept the bowling tight. Sunil, bowling at less than half speed
due to a pulled thigh muscle, bowled with intelligence, guile and Bacardi
in his six overs. He was rewarded with the crucial wickets of Murtaza and
Jatinder to break Millwoods middle order, allowing Rajeev to take his
third catch behind the stumps from Murtaza and Sunil taking a splendid
catch off his own bowling to dismiss Jatinder.
This brought Millwoods last hope, the ever-dangerous Vijay to the crease,
along with the villan of the hour, wicketkeeper Kasif. Greenfield was not
going to let Kasif off the hook. Still, at 91-8, the game could have gone
either way, with hard-hitting Vijay Muttoo at the crease. The spinners
were re-introduced, and it was Arees, who trapped the danger-man Vijay leg
before. Millwoods lost their 9th wicket before they reached 100 on the
scoreboard. Millwoods supporters were quiet as they finally realized that
they on the verge of losing the game.
Justice was finally done, when Ram and Arees combined to run the man out
who had given us so much inspiration, Kasif, and Greenfield had completed
an historic victory! Greenfield celebrated in style and the Millwoods team
trudged off to the dressing room for their post-match inquiry. I would
like to thank Steve for his positive influence on the whole game. He
taught us that true spirit of cricket is not behaving like our opponents,
but setting an example to them that our sportsmanlike conduct, so that the
other team will learn that Greenfield will not stoop to their level of
behavior. Cricket is a gentlemen’s game and we have to remember that our
behavior is often tested.
Man of the Match : Jonathan Rae, he single handedly handled the bowling
attack. His line and length and speed terrified the opponents. Giving
everything he had, he turned the game around for Greenfield, a game that
we could have easily lost considering the opponents. Surely, the victory
was the team effort, yet we would like to recognize personal achievements.
Our entire team along with the Executive and membership would like to
applaud and thank Jonny for this great achievement. It is not only
gratifying to perform at the highest level, but indeed an awesome
contribution to our victory. Well done Jonny and keep up the good work.
Maybe it was Melanie’s magic cookies that did inspired you to do the job!
All 11 players including the twelfth man Trevor, the breakfast club and
everyone associated with Greenfield, contributed in many different ways.
Just by being there, being supportive, or playing extremely well with very
bad injuries (Sunil and Rajeev especially). The best match I have had the
pleasure of playing on Canadian soil. I think the memory of this amazing
win will stay with us for a very, very long time come.
A special thanks to Millwoods wicketkeeper Kasif Alam, who provided a lot
motivation and inspiration to our bowlers and our fielders. There is a
fine line between motivational talking and sportsmanship, and he crossed
that line.
Moral of the story: Do not annoy Greenfield. We will come after you. We
are as good as any team in the league. |
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