Best pals Romeno Deane and Andre Kirton were key men in completing a 76 runs, rain affected, victory for Liberty Sports Club over Atlantis Cricket Club – New York. On Sunday, August 16th, Deane hammered 63 when LSC batted first while his mate, Andre Kirton returned to scalp 3 for 7 off four overs to lead the defense. The game was reduced from 40 to 29 overs a side after an extended delay due to a passing downpour and no covers being provided by host, LSC.
Under bright sunshine and clear skies with no rainfall forecasted for the day, LSC won the toss and elected to bat first. Francis Mendonca and Deane took gard for #TheBlueNation. Sixtythree runs into the opening stand Mendonca skied one to backward point off Greg Robinson to depart for 12. Deane, doing the majority of scoring in the inning at this point, appeared to be at his dominant best. He opened his account with back to back boundaries in the 2nd over then followed it up by taking 24 off the 6th over.
Trevor Henry joined Deane after Mendonca’s departure and the hard hitting duo raced LSC to 106 by the time the 1st water break was taken at the 12 over. Deane’s half century contained only two singles, the remainder of runs were compiled with seven 4’s and three 6’s. Another four and a maximum got him into the 60’s. A smart catch at backward point stopped Deane’s onslaught, however.
Henry was putting in some work of his own. Hitting 10 fours and a maximum the LSC runs leader got to his half century by the 18th over, having only spent 10 overs at the crease. As the saying goes, ‘catches win matches’, and Keyon Lakes’ running, full length diving catch to dismiss henry certainly changed the match. Not only did it remove the dangerous looking Henry but it triggered an LSC batting collapse. The next 10 overs resulted in 5 more LSC wickets falling with just 58 runs added to the total. Andre Kirton (24) and Dilly Khilawan (13*) were the only batsmen after Henry to get past double figures. Trinson Carmichael (8), Danesh Deonarain (3), Terrence Madramootoo (4) and Antonio Chan (0) had short stays at the crease.
Michael Noble, a former LSC player, bagged 4 for 29 off 8 overs and was the key instigator of the LSC collapse. With Atlantis CC looking to wrap up the LSC inning at the start of the batting power play, the overhead clouds broke and a sudden downpour commenced as the players rushed off to seek a dry spot. The wicket, however, was left unprotected as the downpour went on. By the time the rain ended and due to the exposed matting it was not possible for LSC to resume their inning.
The umpires and both captain inspected the pitch and agreed to resume play at 5pm. At the resumption of play Atlantis CC-NY were left with a decision to make with respect to the outcome of the match and the current EACA regulations.. Continue the game, chasing the amount of runs at a par run rate given the remaining allotted overs, or doing the same and contesting the outcome of the game with a league protest. While skipper, Alex Amsterdam, could have take the easy way out and went down the protest route the USA National player stood tall and accepted the challenge ahead of his team and chose the sporting option to chase with no protest.
The final agreement by the umpires and both captains is that there was enough time to get in 29 overs in the game. For simplicity in similar types of situation the EACA regulations outline that par run rate are used in these. The resulted in ACC-NY needing 187 in 29 overs.
Shawn Mason and Michael Noble got things going with the bat while Trevor Henry had the ball in hand. Henry struck the first blow, knocking over Mason in his first over. Kirton taking up the new ball attack at the other end would prove crucial as he turned in one of his top performances of the season with the ball.
Kirton ripped through the heart of the Atlantis CC batting. National players Nicholas Stanford (1) and Alex Amsterdam (0) were sent back in the pavilion in two consecutive balls. A couple of overs later Noble (1) was back on the sidelines. This meant the top four ACC batsmen were gone for a combined 2 runs off the bat.
Jamal Hickson (32), Dwaye Smith (27) and Treon Forde (26) staged a fightback but it was not enough to get ACC the stability needed to set up the chase. Trinson Carmichael bowled Hickson and then had Forde hold out to long off. Smith stuck around for a while but could not find the support from the lower order.
Terrence Madramootoo, introduced into the attack relatively late, cleaned up the tail. Madramootoo bowled Prashant Nair (0) and then had Jameel Jackman (0) caught the very next ball. Smith was the last to go edging one from Madramootoo to a sharp catch at slip by Romeno Deane. The final score was 110 all out, resulting in a 77 runs victory.
Bowling for LSC had Kirton, Carmichael and Madramootoo took 3 wickets apiece while Henry picked up 1.
The 2015 Liberty Sports Club is sponsored by GMA Enterprise Real Estate & Tax Services, located on 122nd St & Liberty Ave and Royal Empress Catering Hall, located on 122nd St & Rockaway Blvd. Please visit their website www.gmaenterprise.com &www.rockawaycarny.com to support our sponsor. Follow the progress of Liberty Sports Club and join #TheBlueNation via facebook (facebook.com/LibertyCricketClubb), Twitter (@LibertySportsC) & Instagram (@LibertySportsC)