aka That Was The Week That Was
Strangely wonderful happenings all across the league, as
teams make the desperate final push towards the
playoffs - and the playoff picture is as murky as ever
after this weekend.
With the top 4 teams already certain to make the
playoffs (Pak Gym, Challengers, Milwaukee United and St
Louis), it was a straight fight between 5 teams for
4 spots...and there is almost no change in that scenario
even after a wild and wonderful weekend of cricket.
It all started on Saturday with contenders Flames hoping
to knock off the #1 seed Pak Gym and maybe simultaneously clinch a playoff spot (historically 8 wins, that is 32
points, has always been enough to make the playoffs in
Division One). Flames batted first and Kiran supposedly
knocked up 80+ as the Flames put up a very competitive
229/9 in their 45 overs. Pak then demonstrated why they
are overwhelming favourites this year however with their
response - with 50 from Bakshi, 41 from Shahid and 30s
from Irfan, Imran and Ali, Pak cruised to a win with 5
wickets in hand and 8 overs to spare. This leaves the
Flames on 28 points, with 3 matches to play - a crunch
game against Purdue on the long weekend next week,
followed by a back-to-backer to finish the season,
a monstrously huge Saturday game against Wildcats,
followed by a trip to Milwaukee to take on Asif on
Sunday.
Purdue was the other team hoping to clinch a playoff
spot on Saturday, and they did their part by continuing
their good form - they bowled out Rivercity for 138
(with 4 more wickets for left-arm spinnining veteran
Dr. Ravi Krishna), and knocked off the target with 6
wickets in hand and 20 overs to spare. This vaulted
Purdue to 32 points with 2 matches to play (Flames,
followed by Milwaukee United)... but due to other
happenings around the league, the elusive playoff
spot remains unclinched for Purdue, despite 7 wins in
their last 8 games.
The really big result on Saturday was the defeat of
Milwaukee United by the resurgent defending champions,
the Not-Dead-Yet Wildcats. For the third time in a row
(2 playoff games last year, and now Saturday), the
Wildcats have taken on Milwaukee United on a grey day
with a persistent drizzle (and with yours truly
umpiring)... and each time they have won a crucial
toss, inserted the deep batting lineup of Milwaukee
United in to bat, and proceeded to knock them off
for about 130 runs. This time there were 3 rain
interruptions during the first innings, but both teams
were keen to play and worked hard to cover and then
fix the pitch and runups (Milwaukee deserving huge
credit for this, as they already had a playoff spot
clinched while the Wildcats were desperate for 4
points). Milwaukee had an excellent start with 39/0
in 6 overs.. and then the wickets fell with monotonous
regularity as the famed Wildcat pressure-in-the-field
exerted itself. The rain interruptions didnt help, and Milwaukee folded for only 134 with Balaji claiming 4/21.
Inspired by his bowling form, Balaji came out blazing
with the bat too, hammering 29 off 23 balls as the
Wildcats took control of the reply. The Wildcats would
have other reasons to be pleased with this near-perfect
outing - Vikram looked to be regaining form (which has
been lost since his legendary innings in the finals
last year) during his unbeaten 25, while Ajit oozed
class in his knock (with one breathtakingly gorgeous
lofted offdriven six being the standout shot of not just
this day, but probably a few months). This huge win
vaulted the Wildcats to 30 points with one game (against
the Flames) to come, and put the pressure squarely on
the shoulders of the other contenders - one more Wildcat
win, and any loss by either Muslim Gym or the Bears
would put the Wildcats, considered dead and buried only
a month ago, into the playoffs.
Today, however, demonstrated what makes this league so
much fun - the other contenders rose to the challenge,
and responded with vigour.
The Bears had the hardest road - coming off consecutive
losses to United and Muslim, they had an uphill climb,
facing the #2 ranked (and twice-champion) Challengers,
with a long trip to St Louis in prospect. Today they
batted first, and had slid to 50/3 when skipper Faisal
(who has often batted #11!) promoted himself all the
way up the order to #5 with the season on the line...
and, looking Pressure squarely in the Eye, refused to
blink. With Afroze contributing a strokeful 43, the
skipper took on the task of first steadying the
rocking ship, and then guiding it through stormy waters.
By the end of a real Captain's Knock (a top-score of
44), the Bears were already up near 170 with half-a-dozen
overs to go, and excellent strokeplayers (Tariq, Salman
and Adeel) to come. Adeel contributed a vital strokeful
25, and the Bears put up a highly competitive 214 on the
board. The Challengers blazed only briefly in response -
they scored rapidly and had a hundred up on the board in
less than 20 overs, but they had lost 5 wickets by then
already. Wickets continued to tumble until the
Challengers slid to 145/9 (wth former Challenger Afroze
claiming 3 wickets) - but once again the last pair of
this Challenger team in which literally everyone can bat
well refused to give in. The last pair put on 30, and
had brought the Challengers to within 40 to win with
30+ balls still to go, before their brave resistance
ended and the Bears had won their biggest game of the
season. This massive win has vaulted the Bears to
32 points, with one last game left in Saint Louis -
and has left their destiny in their own hands, as a win
will definitely take them into the playoffs.
While the Bears were winning a huge game at Washtington
Park, Muslim Gym were locked in their own do-or-die
struggle in Milwaukee against MCC. Having dismissed
Milwaukee for 167, Muslim waged a grim battle against
mounting pressure. Reports remain sketchy at this stage,
but skipper Farhat remained unbeaten on 26 and guided
his immensely talented young side home with only 3
wickets to spare in the final over of the match! Another
61 runs from Imran (who thus remains the highest
rungetter in Division One this season), and a big win
for Muslim that vaults them to 32 points as well, with
one last game against United to come. Their destiny too
remains in their own hands - with this very big win
today, they will make the playoffs if they win their
last match.
Meanwhile... The Ground Beneat Our Feet....
While there is an excting fight for the glory of a
playoff spot at the top of Division One, the most
thrilling race of all in this entire league is the
intense and pressure-packed Life-and-Death struggle
to avoid relegation.
Last week Tigers beat Chargers by a mere 5 runs in
one of the most intense and tight games Ive umpired
in a long time, to move to 2.5 wins (ahead of the
Chargers, at 2 wins, for the last relegation spot).
The gutted and emotionally shell-shocked Chargers
had to try and regroup in a hurry, to take on Phoenix
this week. Regroup they did, and how! They game out
charging, for lack of a better word - and with Phoenix
not quite at full intensity (their chance for a
playoff spot was already gone by today), the Chargers
took full advantage with an inspired display. Phoenix's
22/1 in 6 overs became 37/2 in 10 overs... and then
the Chargers actually stepped up the pressure further.
Arshad claimed 3/21 and Sameer 4/16, as Phoenix was
pushed to 92 allout. The Chargers put up 45/0 in 10
overs in reply, and finished off a thoroughly clinical
and professional performance by romping home with 7
wickets and 23 overs to spare. This critical win
pushed them to 3 wins, and once again ahead of the
Tigers.
And then news slowly started filtering through from
the Northwest Suburbs... that the Tigers had collapsed
to 85 allout against the Royals... but had somehow
risen from the dead and bowled the Royals out for 79
to win by 6 runs! At Hanover Park, no less! It was
unbelievable at first, and must surely have sounded
like a cruel attempt at poor humour to the Chargers
to start with... but it was true! With no details
at the time of report, one can only imagine the
amazingly gutsy performance the Tigers must have
produced in the field to defend that ridiculously
low score!
The playoff-contenders are fighting hard to try
and make the Elite Eight, its true - but there are
surely no teams in the entire league who have fought
harder and with more effort than the Tigers and
Chargers in the past two weeks. The sad truth remains
that one of them will probably be relegated anyway -
but no matter the final result, both teams have
produced an amazing effort the past two weeks and
deserve huge kudos for the sheer guts and fighting
spirit they have shown.
________________________________________________________________
Sent via the WebMail system at midwestcricket.org
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