Liberty Sports Club shared the honors with Washington Metro Cricket Board during their games over the Memorial Day weekend. The young LSC team which consisted of 7 players under the age of 22, won a T20 encounter on Saturday but collapsed in their chase during a 40 over match on Sunday.
Saturday’s T20
Arriving after an early morning drive to Alexandria, Virginia #TheBlueNation took the field first when the WMCB XI won the toss and elected to bat. Imtiaz Hassan struck early to remove the WMCB skipper, Nasir Qayyum, LBW for 16. His departure resulted in a constant loss of wickets for WMCB. Avadh Nandra top scored with 34 while Ameer Ali matched his skipper’s total before WMCB was bowled out for 111 at the start of the 19th over.
Terrence Madramootoo was the chief wicket-taker for LSC with 3 for 15 off 3.1 overs. Leon Mohabir picked up 2 for 16 while Jason Rooney, Tooneshwar Kristona & Javed Shakoor matched Hassan’s 1 wicket.
Guest players Randall Wilson & Sunesh Wazid made light work of the total, contributing 41 & 38 not out respectively. LSC lost only 3 wickets, that of opening batsman Bose Persaud, Danesh Deonarain and Wilson while chasing down the total inside the 17th over. Terrence Madramootoo finished with an unbeaten 13.
Sunday’s 40 Overs
With a boost in confidence after the Saturday win LSC looked to make it two in two on Sunday. The young unit did well again to restrict WMCB to a manageable total, 197. Once again the hosts won the toss and elected to bat first. Captain, Qayyum and partner Ravi Parthasarathy saw off the LSC opening bowlers but the partnership did not last long after the first change. Mohabir picked up Parthasarathy for 16 in his first over on and Kristona bowled Qayyum for 39 shortly after.
Kristona would go on to bowl 8 economical overs on the trot finishing with 1 for 35. Seventeen year old Javed Shakoor turned out his best bowling performance for #TheBlueNation picking up 2 for 22 off 5 overs. Jason Rooney also turned in his LSC best bowling figures of 2 for 16 off 3 overs to help strangle the runs flow. Richardson Sacrais batted sensibly for 34 but was removed by Rooney before Prabhjot Singh 26 & Nohman Amir 25 provided some late order momentum to close off the WMCB XI.
Terrence Madramootoo was once again the pick of the LSC bowlers with 7 overs 3 for 27. Mohabir finished with 2 for 44.
The LSC chase got off to a shaky start when Wilson was out for 5 early on. Bose Persaud searching for form played a handsome hand of 25 but would lose his partner, Altaaf Habibulla, during his stay before he himself held out to deep backward square. The fall of Persaud’s wicket triggered a collapse for #TheBlueNation.
Sunesh Wazid was bowled the next ball, shortly after Terrence Madramootoo & Imitaz Hassan were out without troubling the score. Skipper Danesh Deonarain’s stay was short also having hit a six and then shortly after edging to the keeper. With the fall of Deonarain the total proved out of reach with Kristona finishing on 14 not out, holding his end while his young partners could not hang on long enough to build any meaningful partnerships. LSC was all out in the 25th over for 85 suffering a defeat by 113 runs.
The primary destroyer for WMCB was spinner, Madhu Reddy with 5 for 19.
Liberty Sports Club would like to thank the Management and Players of the Washington Metro Cricket Board for their hospitable reception in hosting us over the Weekend.
