California Cup One-day Series

Game 1: Game Summary :: Scorecard :: Rules :: Accommodation :: Team :: Match Report

Game 2: Game Summary :: Scorecard :: Rules :: Accommodation :: Team :: Match Report

Game 3: Game Summary :: Scorecard :: Rules :: Accommodation :: Team :: Match Report

Game 1
NCCA vs. SCCA
Wong Field, Woodley Grounds, Southern California
Played on April 10th, 2004
Match Report by Umesh Kelkar

The first game of the inaugurating year of the California Cup between the traditional rivals, Northern California Cricket Association (NCCA) and Southern California Cricket Association (SCCA), was played at beautiful Woodley Park on April 10th, 2004. The atmosphere was fantastic with SCCA administrators preparing the ground to perfection on a perfect day for cricket.

NCCA captain Abbas Rizvi won the toss and elected to bat on a hard surface which promised a high scoring game. NCCA openers (Umesh Kelkar and Amit Dehra) were watchful against some controlled swing bowling from SCCA captain Inder Singh. The openers played some good shots against Clarence Williams, SCCA left arm opening bowler, which gave NCCA a reasonably good start of 31 runs in 6 overs. Just when things were settled down for NCCA Umesh tried to flick a ball pitched outside the legstump from Inder and managed to edge it to slips. Amit tried to drive a full pitched delivery from the first change bowler Raza and nicked it to the keeper. The very next over misunderstanding between NCCA skipper Abbas and Rohan Dutt, both new batsmen at the crease, lead to Rohan getting runout. From a decent start, NCCA were suddenly reduced to 33/3 in 8 overs. Abbas and Naumann Mustafa negotiated some quality pace bowling from SCCA quite well. The runs were coming mainly through extras. Raza bowled with fire and Inder was swinging the ball long ways and beating the bat quite often. Abbas was bowled by Raza by a beauty of an inswinger which brought Carmo Rodriguez at the wicket.

Carmo played some delightful shots off the backfoot and made his intentions clear by running very aggressively between wkts. On the other hand, Naumann supported Carmo with solid defense. The scoring rate was well above 4 runs an over and picked up when Aditya Thyagarajan, legspinner, was introduced into the attack. Carmo was especially severe on Aditya lofting him over covers and pulling him through mid wkt for another boundary. Team USA all-rounder Aijaz Ali was introduced into the attack and immediately obliged by forcing Naumann to knick one to the keeper. Sunny Singh joined Carmo in the middle and lofted first ball from Ali over midwkt for a four. Carmo played a delightful lofted drive, however, Ali had a last laugh when he bowled Carmo off a good swinging delivery. Carmo played a good knock of 47. Ali had Sunny in all sorts of trouble with his legcutters. Sunny and Raj tried to steady the ship before Raj was undone by another superb legcutter from Ali. Sunny tried to hit Rashid Zia, off-spinner , out of the park but gave a simple catch. NCCA lower order offered some resistance and managed to get to a total of 181. Ali Aijaz bowled brilliantly for his 4 wkts and was well supported by other SCCA bowlers. A total of 181 was a modest total considering beautiful batting conditions.

SCCA started off disastrously when Arshad Junaid tried to cut a good length ball from Saeed Ahmad and was caught at point by Amit. The very next over Waqas Mirza got one to nip back and uprooted dangerous Rashid Zia's off-stump. This brought in the best batting pair from SCCA namely Aditya and Ali Ajaz at the crease. Saeed and Waqas were bowling with fire and knew that one more wicket will put NCCA on top. Aditya tried to drive Saeed and Naumann did the rest behind the wickets. Suddenly the game was wide open with SCCA struggling at 3/3 in 4 overs. Ali Shafi, SCCA youngster, had some nervous moments at the crease but played some delightful drives on both sides of the wicket. On the other end was experienced Ali Ajaz punishing anything over-pitched and guiding the youngster with some tips. NCCA bowlers bowled too many full and over-pitched balls which were punished by both the Alis. SCCA players demonstrated professionalism and got themselves out of tough situation. Affan and Raj, middle order bowlers from NCCA, tried to put brakes on free scoring, however, could not keep the same pressure as the opening bowlers. SCCA recovered to 67/3 in 17 overs after a disastrous start.

After the break, Affan bowled tidy over to Ali Shafi and made him knick one to the keeper down the leg side. Ali shafi departed after a well made 36. Ricky Singh started shakily and primarily defending most of the balls on the front foot. After a quiet start, Ricky Singh opened up by lofting Abbas over mid-wicket for a boundary. Ricky Singh was especially severe on Affan hitting him all over the wicket for 20 runs in one over. Abbas made several bowling changes in an effort to get a breakthrough. NCCA missed a spinner on a batsman friendly wicket and against some quality strokeplay from Ali and Ricky. Finally, Ali Aijaz edged one from Waqas to keeper when SCCA needed just 28 runs. Ajaz Ali scored 62 runs and pulled SCCA out of trouble. Captain Inder Singh joined Ricky who played some brilliant lofted shots to take SCCA to a comfortable victory in 33 overs.

Aijaz Ali got Man of the Match award for an excellent bowling spell of 4/38 and invaluable 62 runs. Aijaz graciously shared the award with youngster Ricky Singh who played a cracking knock of 62 not out. The game was officiated well by Tilak Wijayadasa (SCCA) and CK Venkat (NCCA). SCCA were an excellent host and the game was played in very healthy atmosphere. NCCA players used the opportunity to learn more about playing conditions and their opponents. NCCA players were quite ready to take their game up a notch in next two games to compete with SCCA.

The next two games will be played on May 29th and May 30th. Expect to see a keen contest between the two sides, in the next two games, for winning the California Cup