Sunday at the Park

Three cracking games including one final, a very high probability of great weather ( 70s, sunny), a collection of super star players from both divisions ready to put on a great show, a bunch of spirited volunteers managing the logistics, including chairs, tables, food, music...and last but not the least....another rare chance to watch the Midwest Bradman, Satha Sivapragasam! Now, why would any self respecting local cricket fan be anywhere else?

The Division 1 Finals is expected to start at 9.30 AM with Pak Gym taking on Challengers. Based on the poll on our blog, Pak Gym certainly starts with a slight edge and justifiably so given their outstanding form this season. I'm certainly looking forward to see their highly rated bowling attack led by the other perennial superstar of MWCC, Shahid Munir and with the likes of Farman, Rashid, Bakshi and our very own Raheel ( surely the blogger's favorite!) the heat is going to be on the Challengers batting to stand and deliver. If Daxx's stunning 99 in the Night semis earlier this week is any indication then, Challengers batting will be ready to dish out their own menu. Also, with guys like Tushar, Bhavesh, Nilesh, Sanjay etc.. all matchwinners on their day, this final looks like a very tight contest irrespective of what the polls say. But, my pick for the player to watch out for is a guy who seems to love the big occasion. He made a quite unbeaten 27 in the semis, but those who watched the sensational finals between the Wildcats and Pak Gym last year may not have forgotten this man's superb century that set up the mammoth Pak Gym total. He is Hasan Shah and I say watch out for him!

In Division II we have Capitol taking on Chicago Giants. Capitol as the higher seed obviously goes in as the favorite but I will say that it will be a colossal mistake to underestimate the Giants. This is a team that is on a mission. They played several games earlier this season without their full arsenal, but the second half of the season has seen a revitalized Giants clinically knocking off team after team to reach the semis. Satha is obviously the biggest threat for the Giants, but this Capitol is not just Satha ( part of the reason why they are in the semis). There are guys like Rahul, Vamshi, Madan etc that can turn the game on their own. Satha's presence is going to cast a huge shadow on this game but to me the player to watch out for sits on the Chicago Giants roster. I'm a big fan of his batting and I can assure you that if this guy gets going he can rip apart any attack to shreds. My team has been on the receiving end of his brutality and so from personal experience I will say -- watch out for the explosive Mohammed Yaseen.

The last match up is an absolute cracker of a contest between the alphabet teams, ICC and AAA. Both teams are going to have huge cheering squads and with all the marquee names on either sides this will be a highly interesting game to watch. ICC captain Rupnarine Seenarain will be the biggest name on the field - astute captain, legendary wicket taker, champion bat - he can do it all. With guys like Challenor Jack, Colin Burgins, Simeon Xavier, Aaron Challenger etc, Rup and Co have the firepower to blank out any opponent. But, this is not just any opponent that stands across them. Led by the most unassuming super all rounder Hafez Adam Menk - a guy who can hurt you with the ball and with the bat ( not to speak of his magical ability to win tosses!), this is a team that has a collection of guys who can beat you before you even know what happened. Guys like Imran Taylor, Khalil Dadabhai, Abdul Behrin etc can destroy bowling attacks in no time and then they have the always dangerous Bilal Patel who floats around the batting order and you still have Hafez Adam Menk to deal with. It will be an interesting battle between these two totally different teams. The fact that our friends Rup and Jack have pretty much guaranteed a win on the blog makes this a must follow game for us bloggers. No questions as to who to watch for in this game: All eyes should be on the incomparable Rup...and with the corner of the eye watch out for Hafez A. Menk. One thing is for sure - this sunday will be fun!

We are hoping to have a " Midwest Cricketer" area out in the middle of the Park. Hope to see you there.

The Div 1 Finals Poll: Who will be the 2006 Champ?

Who will be the 2006 Division I Champions?
	Pak Gymkhana
	Challengers
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Discussion Board: Week of Sept 23/24

Discussion Board for games played during weekend of Sept 23/24. Lets hope rain does not ruin this weekend also.

The Future of Washington Park?

I dont know if anyone watched the news yesterday - our beloved
Washington Park was in the news. And Big News, at that!

With Chicago bidding for the Olympics in 2016, and the idea of
the "Olympic Stadium" in Soldier Field not flying with the
committees, Mayor Daley has decided to build the new Olympic
Stadium at... Washtington Park!

( Read the Chicago Tribune article)

( Read the Public's Reaction to the plan from the Tribune)

The idea, supposedly, is to construct a 95,000 seat stadium in
what currently constitutes Washington Park (a 350-acre area),
used for the track and field events, and the Opening and
Closing ceremonies. After the Olympics are over, the seating
will be dragged away, leaving a 10,000 seat stadium around
a "sunken area". There will be astroturf areas left behind
which will be used for "soccer and football for high schools".

Obviously, no mention was made of cricket. Is this horrible
news for us cricket fans? Will we see the end of 4
cricket-fields in Chicago in one stroke? Or can it actually
turn into something good - if we get good representation to
the city, can we end up with astroturf and grass fields
that are better maintained, that could be used for years to
come (and also have seating and restroom facilities, which
would greatly improve the place overall)?

The Olympics may only be in 2016, but this is not very far
away for us - the US Olympic Committee will decide by spring
if they have chosen Chicago for the US bid, and the IOC itself
will decide within a year. If Chicago makes the cut, one would
presume that construction would start pretty much right away,
or fairly soon anyway... which means it will directly
affect us and our league maybe as early as next summer,
definitely by summer 2008!

If we want to retain our best cricketing fields, we probably
should start working on it with the city right away! Else
cricket will just be forgotten, and we may suddenly be left
with 4 fewer cricket grounds in our city!

Written by Sadiq Yusuf

The Second Playoff Weekend by Sadiq Yusuf

The upcoming weekend brings Round Two of our elite knockout
tournament. If the weather holds, we have a fascinating
weekend in prospect.

#1 Illinois CC vs #9 Peoria CC

On Saturday we have maybe the most anticipated playoff game
of this weekend, the Illinois vs Peoria matchup.

Illinois is the #1 seed, a rampant dominant side that crushed
most of the opposition in its path this season. Apart from
one loss to Suburban, they barely had even a close match all
year long (including a 5-wicket demolition of Peoria in June). Playing
a slightly uneven schedule (only 5 eventual playoff sides
out of 14), Illinois ran through most opposition (including
4 of the 5 eventual playoff teams) with ease.

For many years now, when anyone has thought of Illinois they
have automatically thought only of Rup - a veteran in our
league now, and long acknowledged as its finest allrounder.
This year Rup has found backup however - there is a clear
Big Three in both bowling and batting. In batting ICC has
been led by Rup with 630 runs, Colin with 550, and Jack
with almost 400 - three batsmen who have put up big runs
time and again all year, leading ICC to winning totals. If
there is any hint of worry in the batting it would be the
drop-off after that - the next highest scorer has only 155,
and only one other batsman (Ron) has passed fifty all year,
despite the presence of capable batsmen in the lineup. The
bowling is somewhat similar - Rup and Jack have been maybe
the two best bowlers in Division Two all year long, with 37
and 32 wickets apiece. The third cog in this destructive
bowling machine has been Simeon with 21 wickets - but again,
only one other bowler (veteran spinner Yodeo with 12 wickets
in only 7 games) is in double digits in the wickets. Partly,
of course, because there have been precious few wickets left
for other bowlers after the Deadly Duo have picked off the
lion's share at the top!

Taking on ICC will be Peoria, a study in contrast. With 8
players who were members of the First Division Playoff
side Rivercity last season, Peoria came into this season as
probable favourites in Division Two. But they have had a
season in total contrast to ICC - where ICC dominated all
year long, Peoria struggled. Where ICC brooked no opposition,
starting the season 8-0 on its way to 13-1 with nary a close
game, Peoria struggled to 3-4 at the halfway point before
winning 6 of 7 to scrape into the playoffs as #9 seed
(including a 3-run win over Arsenal and a 2-wicket
win over Nostars).

Where ICC is clearly led by a Big Three in batting and
bowling, Peoria depends much more on teamwork, and a
"spread offence", on balance and a shared load. Peoria's
highest rungetter (Venkat) has made barely 300 runs (far
less than ICC's #3 Jack's almost 400), but Peoria has 6
batsmen who have made over 200, and 7 who have made more
than ICC's #4 rungetter. Peoria's highest wickettaker
(Kiran) has 19 wickets - less than ICC's #3 wickettaker
Simeon who has 21 - but Peoria also has 6 wickettakers in
double-digits this season. It is a side of depth and variety,
and seemingly rounding into its best form of the year at the
most important time.

It is partly that which makes this such a fascinating contest
- two very good teams, who are so different from each other.
Illinois has been dominant all year and hardly had a good
contest - but PCC is the one team that is the likeliest to
give them one this year. After a long season of waiting,
the "real" Madhu Reddy finally showed up in Division Two
last week - in the most important game of the season one of
the best allrounders in the league (along with Rup and Jack)
smashed an unbeaten 80, and followed it up with a handful
of wickets to stop a very good Suburban team. If he can keep
up that kind of form (and get the support he got from Kiran,
another excellent allrounder, last week), for the first time
all year the consensus #1 seed may have a real contest on
its hands.

With the usual pagentry and sheer fun that always accompanies
any ICC game (multiplied several times over given the playoff
atmosphere), this may well be the most anticipated game to
be played in either division this weekend.

#2 IIT vs #7 Chicago Giants

In the second quarterfinal, we have two teams that have not
faced each other this season, IIT and the Giants.

IIT is a quite different side than in years past - having
lost many players thru graduation (the first-division
Flames alone had 5 ex-IIT players who played for them this
season), IIT is a relatively inexperienced side this year.
But somehow, after an early-season demolition by Illinois,
they managed to right the ship and cruise through the season
with a 13-1 record.

The strength of the side now appears to lie in its bowling
and fielding - led by Laxmi's 18 wickets, IIT has 6 bowlers
in double-digits this season (and Ajay has 9 wickets in only
5 games), including 3 (Laxmi, Sudipto, and skipper Arka)
with economy-rates under 4 an over! The batting has a much
more uneven look - though Laxmi had his typically big season
with 485 runs, only 1 other batsman (Vasu) scored over 200,
with captaincy responsibilites weighing skipper Arka, an
excellent batsman, down to only one fifty all year. The
addition of Ajay late in the season could prove vital to this
team, with his experience and proven runmaking ability in past
seasons.

Taking them on will be the Chicago Giants, fresh of a
clinically professional demolition of the QC Kings last week
that has sent their confidence sky high. It was stated in the
Giants preview last week that they were a team stacked with
good bowling - and they proved it once again, running through
the Kings for only 88 aided by some excellent swing bowling
(with Yaseen, often the fifth bowling option, slicing thru
the batting lineup with a 5-fer). Giants then chased down
the target with 8 wickets in hand and 20 overs to spare.

This is a team that started the season 3-3-1 and then went
through a controversial forfeit at Evanston. Since then they
have run off 6 straight wins, including 3 straight on the
road. They were playing their best cricket of the season
coming into the playoffs, and in their near-perfect playoff
win last week, looked on both sides of the ball like a team
that could go very far indeed in this knockout tournament.

#3 Capitol vs #11 Advancers

It is true that there are 4 potentially very good playoff
games in Chicago on Saturday... but the most anticipated
single event may well be the fact that Satha will be playing
his first innings in Chicago this season!

Capitol has often uncharitably been referred to by critics as
a One-Man-Army. It is, really, an unfair and inaccurate
characterisation, but if anything it is testament to one who
is clearly the Audie Murphy of our league, Satha Sivapragasam!
The numbers this year are once again staggering - a small
matter of 873 runs in 10 games, 4 centuries and 1 fifty in
8 completed innings, and an average of merely 109! The Best
Batsman in the MCC once again brooked no competitors to his
title.

Capitol has often depended too much on Satha, but that might
have changed this year. While they still have only 3 other
batsmen who have scored over 150 (and barely over 150 at that),
they do have 4 other batsmen this year who have scored fifties
in our league (two of them, Rahul and Mayur, have played only
3 and 4 games apiece, but both should be eligible for the
playoffs). While Satha is still the main force in this lineup
(as he would be in any lineup in the league), this year Capitol
possesses better depth than in the past few years. The bowling
is similar to years past, with Madan leading an attack which
has 4 bowlers in double-digit wickets for the year. The best
demonstration of their improved depth came against a good
Suburban outfit a few weeks ago - where, depsite losing Satha
for only 31, a fifty from Mayur took Capitol to 174 which they
then defended well against a deep batting side.

Facing off against Capitol will be the Advancers, a second-year
club coming off the best win in team history last week over
fancied and star-studded MDS. As mentioned in the Advancers' preview last week, this has been a team that is hard to get
a handle on, since it changes so much from week to week, and
used 25 players in the regular season. Now that the playoffs
have arrived, they obviously are playing their best XI - and
their excellent bowling lineup (led by Ramesh, Ramgopal,
Saurabh and Shakir) knocked off a deep MDS batting lineup
for 160 last week, and the batting (led by Suresh and Shakir)
chased down the total with ease, with 7 wickets and several
overs to spare. It was a thumping and perfectly executed
win, all the more impressive for coming in the Advancers
first playoff game.

The Advancers are familiar with Capitol, and especially with
Satha, having played them only a month-and-a-half ago,
when Satha scored an unbeaten 150 (out of 224 for 8). The
Advancers had a chance in that game, scoring 150 themselves
in only 27 overs but getting allout in the process. With their
confidence much higher now, with their full-strength team
available for the playoffs, and holding an effective home-field
advantage over Capitol (who will be playing their first
game of the season in Washtington Park), the Advancers will
go into the quarterfinal this Saturday fancying their chances
to create a second straight upset. Especially if they can
dismiss Satha relatively cheaply - after all, the man is only
human (presumably), and must surely be due to not get a big
score *sometime*!

#4 AAA vs #12 Madison

The fourth quarterfinal features a most intriguing matchup,
between AAA and Madison.

AAA features one of the deepest and most versatile teams in
the playoffs. It is a side loaded with players of ability -
no less than 7 batsmen have scored fifties this season, and
7 bowlers have taken 3-fers or better this year. They are
led in both departments by allrounders Adam and Bilal - while
Bilal had the edge in runs (331 to 315), Adam had the edge
in wickets (21 to 18). Third-highest wickettaker Hanif has
also scored almost 200 runs, while keeper Imran and Ibrahim
both have over 200. The dangerous strokeplaying veteran Khalid
had a 160 runs in half a season, and will be available for
the playoffs.

AAA made a wonderful run in the playoffs last season, going all
the way to the semifinals before losing to the eventual
champions. They carried that momentum into this season,
roaring out of the gate at 9-0. However, their one worry will
be that they stumbled a little towards the end, with 3 losses
in 4 games plus a rainout, which pushed them down to #4. One
of those losses came in Madison, when an uncharacteristic
collapsed against a desperate side that needed the points to
make the playoffs resulted in an unexpected defeat. That was
a AAA side, however, that was missing at least 3 key players
(Bilal, Imran and Khalid), and it was a game played on
astroturf in Madison, so maybe not too much should be read
into it.

Madison is coming off a huge upset last week, a shocking
demolition of #5 seed Arsenal at Hanover Park. Madison may
have gotten a little lucky, getting to play their first
playoff game on familiar astroturf rather than on the
unfamiliar concrete and matting of Washtington Park - but
even so, their performance last week was nothing short of
stunning. A veteran and deep-batting Arsenal side, edged out
of a Top Four playoff spot only on runrate, was induced to
collapse for a amazing 55, and Madison knocked it off with
8 wickets in hand and almost 30 overs to spare! Hari (who
starred in the win over AAA a few weeks ago) claimed a 4-fer.

As mentioned in last week's summary of Madison, this is a team
that started very poorly and was in deep trouble at 3-4-1
after 8 games. They have been playing their best cricket since,
however, winning 5 of 6 games coming into the playoffs,
including 3 victories against very solid sides in Lucky, AAA
and MDS. They played easily their best game of the season last
week, in the playoffs against Arsenal - their confidence, at
least, must surely be on a high coming into the quarterfinals
on Saturday.

This quarterfinal may well turn on two things - first, the
ability of Madison to adjust to the concrete-matting
combination of Washington Park, having not played a single
game on it all year. And the second is the sighting of
the moon - if the moon is indeed sighted Friday evening, as
many expect it to be, Ramzan will begin on Saturday morning
... and in that event 11 devout AAA cricketers will be taking
the field and playing the playoff game without the option of
food or water all day long.

-----------------

Meanwhile, the Division One semifinals lie undecided, with 3
quarterfinal games unfinished due to weather. Some will be
finished after the Division Two quarters on Saturday evening,
others may be wrapped up on Sunday morning itself, immediately
before the semifinals are played! All of it, of course,
depending on the weather again.

As of the moment Muslim Gym is 128/6, still more than 150 runs
away from Pak Gym. St Louis has reduced Purdue to 131/7,
needing another 48 runs in 15 overs to pull off the improbable
upset. And the defending champion Wildcats are
characteristically fighting tooth and nail to defend a meagre
115, having reduced Milwaukee United to 92/6 when the rains
came last weekend. The Challengers, meanwhile, sit back and
relax - rested and ready to take on whoever comes out of the
emotional wringer that is the Wildcat vs Milwaukee United
humdinger.

written by Sadiq Yusuf

Midwest Cricket Fantasy Team Update

Since a few of the div-1 quarter finals have not completed, we have decided to wait till next week to calculate the points and apply the same towards the fantasy teams. You are allowed to make a maximum of three changes to your team per week.
If there are any changes, please send an email to dreamteam@midwestcricket.org before 9pm CST Friday.

The various team compositions can be found at : http://www.midwestcricket.org/FantasyLeague06/MCC_fantasy.mht . Thanks to VijayP, from Purdue, for designing the web page.

Photos from the Playoff weekend

Here is Daxx from Challengers after his matchwinning 5 wicket effort to knock off the Bears.

The Midwest Cricketer's roving photographer, Alpesh "Appu" Gohil went around Washington Park this weekend to capture the playoff action. Here is what he got...

New:Jaggi was at Hanover park and took some pics.

Discussion Board: Sept 16/17

Discussion Board for the Play Off weekend. This is a big weekend and hopefully there will be lots to talk about this upcoming week.

A New look for MWCC Umpires

Here is a look at the new MWCC Umpires outfit. It was surprising to see some umpires( not all) in this new, professional looking uniform during the playoff games. It is not sure if this will be the new standard going forward. It sure looks good..at least these two do..don't they? You can click on the photo to see them up close!
(Thank You to Dimpy and Shetul Patel for taking time off from their umpiring duties at the Wildcats vs Milwaukee United game to pose for this picture)

Playoff Preview: Division One - by Sadiq Yusuf

One of the most open seasons in Division One memory
begins the final leg of its journey on Sunday. After
5 months of cricket, 8 teams sit only 3 wins away
from the ultimate prize.

#1 Pak Gym vs #8 Muslim Gym

One of the better rivalries in our league arrives upon
its biggest-ever stage, the playoffs. Whenever I think
of Pak-Muslim, I think automatically of last year -
when, in the regular season, these two teams combined
to conjure up one of the greatest games in many seasons
in our league.
Top-seeded Pak Gym has been, by far, the dominant force
in our league this year. They have lost on the cricket
field just once all year long (and also given 2 walkovers). They have won almost every game in dominant fashion -
their only close match all year was a 1-wicket win
over eventual #2 seed Milwaukee United in Milwaukee. Led
by the league's best player in Shahid Munir (424 runs at 42,
20 wickets at 13, Econ Rate 3.8 an over, 1 Hat Trick),
they possess a deep and destructive batting lineup -
Bakshi, Hassan, Irfan, all among the best batsmen in the
league, and a batting lineup that literally goes all the
way to #11. They may no longer have the #1 wickettaker in
the league, but that is at least partly because they have
3 bowlers this year who have 21 wickets - skipper Rashid,
Bakshi and Raheel - and Shahid has 20. To this they can
add Farman, one of the best swing bowlers around, the
veteran Zaheer, and new recruit Imran.

This is a team chock-full of stars in both bowling and
batting, and one that has been by far the most dominant
and consistent team all season long. They will justifiably
go into the playoffs as the overwhelming favourite for
the title.

Taking them on will be Muslim Gym, making the playoff for
the first time in 5 years. Long considered a highly
talented side, Muslim at last put it all together this year,
as finally the Three Brothers played an entire season and
all clicked simultaneously.

Muslim's strength lies in their batting - they are led by
the league's highest scorer Imran and his brother Kamran,
both exhilerating strokeplayers. Added to the solidity of
Fawad (who played only 4 games this year, but will return
from Minnesota for the playoffs), Mehmood, Farhat and
Azhar, and the hitting abilities down the order of Rizwan
and Arbab, and Muslim has one of the deeper and more
explosive batting lineups in the league. The bowling
has 3 20+ wickettakers in Kamran, Rizwan and Saud, but in
general the bowling has been the weaker link for Muslim
Gym, in all probability. The return of Fawad will
be very important in this department - in 4 matches this
year he has 10 wickets at 14.1/wicket, and 4.11 runs per
over - his presence will be like adding an extra bowler
to the team.

What makes this game most intriguing is that it will be a
true rivalry game - the players know each other very well,
many are friends, and that adds an extra spice to the
rivalry. Pak-Muslim games have always been very hard
fought, even when Muslim wasnt a playoff side - in a
rivalry-game in any sport, funny things can happen. Now
that these two teams are finally meeting each other in
the playoffs, it should be a fascinating contest.

#2 Milwaukee United vs #7 Wildcats

One of the best games of the weekend in prospect, with what
is fast developing into one of the better rivalries in
the league. Two years ago, an upstart Milwaukee United
came into the Division One playoffs and beat the twice
champion Wildcats in the quarters, in a league-shaking
upset. After a long year of waiting, the Wildcats repaid
their debt last year in the quarters, ending the higher-
ranked Milwaukee United's season - and then, for good
measure, went on to upset two more higher-ranked opponents
to win the title. Now, for the third straight season,
these same two teams meet in the self-same quarter-final
round, looking, for the third straight time, to send the
other home for the winter. Heck, these teams have even
met twice in the last 2 regular seasons and won once
each - thus, playoffs and regular season combined, they
are 2-2 in the past 2 years. It has all the elements of a
hit-sequel, along with a little bit of Ali-Frazier-Three,
the Thrilla in Manila (which, for all non-boxing fans,
was a 14-round knock-down, drag-out affair, cosidered one
of the best fights in boxing history).

Milwaukee United has had a solid consolidation season -
last year was their first in Division One, and they
finished #4 but there were suspicions around the league
that it was because they were new, and so their
weaknesses were not yet known. This year they lost a
couple of good players, but still finished #2, and most
people now know they are a solid competitive Division
One side. Their one problem will likely be adjustment -
they have not had the chance to play on matting all season
long, and will have to do it the first time this Sunday
(even their one game in Chicago this season was played
at Hanover Park on astroturf). Their batting is led by
Bhavneet (who had the highest batting-average in the
league this season) and Satya in the middle order, and
with two good openers in Sadiq and new-recruit Sharath.
The bowling has Satya too (21 wickets in 9 matches),
followedby 4 spinners (Shyam, Shiv, Javed and Bhavneet),
and skipper Prasad.

The Wildcats, on the other hand, did not have a
consolidation-season - they just had a remarkable,
topsy-turvy one. In retrospect the first game of the
season might well have been a microcosm of it all - the
Wildcats folded for 125, the Bears were 91/3 after 20
overs chasing, and yet somehow the Wildcats managed to
resurrect themselves from the dead and win by 5 runs. The
season followed a similar script - despite that fairytale
start the Wildcats folded early, slipped to 2-5-1 after
8 games... and then mounted a furious late rally, winning
6 games on the trot to make the playoffs.

The Wildcats are led by... actually, its kind of pointless
to say who this team is led by. Last year Balaji was
batting #11 for them, this year he is their top rungetter.
This year Vikram averages 17 and Satish averages 11 - but
last year in the finals they made 90 between them in the
last 10 overs as they chased down 300 to beat Pak Gym in
the finals, as Satish made a brilliant fifty and Vikram
an unbeaten 139 that will live in legend and song. Best to
say they have a bunch of pretty good batsmen - of whom
Ajit and Vikram are probably the classiest - and a bunch
of pretty good bowlers, of whom Satish and Nikhil are
probably the most worrisome. But pretty much anyone is
likely to contribute in any of the three cricketing
departments on Any Given Sunday in random order.

These are two teams that know each other well now - and
are even kind of similar. They both bat a long way,
with contributors all the way down the order. They both
rely on good running between the wickets, line and length
bowling with lots of spinners, good fielding. And both
fight very hard - last Saturday night MUCC made only 141
against Purdue at Hanover Park, and defended it against a
long batting lineup with verve and spirit. Last night in
the AL Tournament the Wildcats went one better - they made
148 against the best team in the league, Pak Gym, and
defended it by almost 70 runs, holding some ridiculous
catches in the process. The defending champions have won
6 straight, are back in the playoffs, after last night
are on a high, and despite being the lower seed, effectively
have home-field advantage - few would bet against them.

All you ever need to know in the world, they say, you
learn from The Godfather. And from The Godfather we know
that Revenge is a Dish that tastes best when served cold.
Two weeks ago, on a gray rainy day that mirrored last
season's quarterfinals(s), Milwaukee United had a chance
to end the Wildcat's season, serving up the revenge for
last season's end - but, missing Satya and Shiv, they
failed to do it. It is not often in life that you get a
second chance, but two weeks later MUCC has it again -
they will be hoping for warm weather, no rain ...and the
chance to serve up a chilly dish.

# 3 Challengers vs # 6 Bears

Coincidentally, on the same weekend that the Wildcats beat
MUCC in the regular season (8/26), the Bears beat the
Challengers. Both higher seeds get a chance at their
revenge only two weeks later, and both get their best
paceman back for this game (Satya of MUCC missed the
Wildcats game; Nilesh of Challengers missed the Bears game).

Its been a challenging season for the twice-champion
Challengers. It all started easily enough, as they cruised
to 7-0 as they have been doing consistently for the past
few seasons. But they suffered a few hiccups this year
that they have not in a while - losses to Phoenix, Pak,
Bears and Flames, as they ended the second half of the
season at 3-4.

For several years now, the real strength of the Challengers
has been their batting. They may have suffered a few
hiccups this year, but in general everyone can bat,
everyone goes after the bowling and scores quickly... and
even if a few dont make runs, someone else has always
stepped up, without fail, and carried the Challengers to
a winning total. The Challengers have not always been able
to put up their full side this year - due to injuries and
other reasons, Tushar, Nirav and Shital have missed 5, 5 and
6 games respectively, for example,and Tushar often
hasnt bowled with his injury. But for the playoffs everyone
will be back. With Daxx, Tushar, Bhavesh and Nilesh the
Challengers have four of the better allrounders in the
league, in Mahesh they have probably the best batting-keeper.
They bat a long way down, and with Tushar, Nilesh, Daxx
and Sanjay, they have one of the best pace attacks in the league. With the added motivation of revenge this weekend,
they will be hard to beat.

Taking them on will be one of the leagues oldest teams,
the Bears, reclaiming their rightful playoff berth after
a 2-year hiatus. It is, however, no surprise, for this
year the Bears were back at full-strength, with all their
old players returning from the Meadows to further
strengthen their side.

The Bears are a veteran side, who started the season strong
at 6-2. They slid in the middle, however - and when they
lost to Muslim on 8/19, they had lost 3 out of 4 and looked
to be in a lot of trouble with a very difficult schedule
coming up. But this veteran outfit stood up when it counted,
and won two crunch back-to-back matches against the
Challengers and then against St Louis in St Louis - just
to get to the playoffs they had to beat the #3 and #4 seeds
in the last 2 weeks, and in a remarkable demonstration
of resilience and fighting spirit, they did just that.

They are led in runs by Afroze, who was the star of the
match two weeks ago against his old team - and Afroze is
also #2 in wickets for the Bears. There is depth in batting,
however, with 6 batsmen having scored over 150, and often
with batsmen of the calibre of Adeel coming well down the
order. The bowling too is deep and long, Arif with 24
wickets leading 6 bowlers in the double-digits in wickets
(plus Adeel, who has claimed 8 wickets in only 4 games).
With skipper Faisal pushing himself up the at crunchtime
and making runs in the last two matches, it has enabled the
big hitters like Adeel, Arif et al to come down the order
and blast important runs and put up good scores - and the
Bears bowling all year long has been confident it can defend
any score near 200.

These sides too know each other very well from the past
few years - and this should be an excellent game in prospect.

#4 St Louis vs #5 Purdue

By contrast, the last two quarterfinalists dont know each
other at all - this will be the first time St Louis and
Purdue ever play each other. In addition, this will also
be the first time this year that either plays at
Washtington Park - in fact, St Louis has not played at
Washtington Park for two years!

This will also be a battle of experience and youth. St
Louis has gotten younger this year, but remains one of the
most experienced teams in the league, with star veterans
like Masroor, Muqeem, Tehsin, Sohail and Subba. They are
led in batting by Sohail, 411 runs this year for him, for
so long now one of the best batsmen in our league;
new-recruit Amit who has 386 runs at 48 in his first year;
and Mujahid, who has put up 352. The bowling numbers are
dominated by Tehsin and Keshav, but 2 very good bowlers,
pacer Saurubh and one of our better left-arm spinners
Subba have both played only 6 and 4 matches apiece,
but will be back for the playoffs. After a poor season
last year, St Louis returns to the playoffs with a bang -
they put together two separate 4-game winning streaks this
season, and allied with a walkover from Pak Gym are solidly
in 4th spot.

Taking them on will be the rookie Division One side
Purdue, one of the least experienced and youngest sides in
the league. For an inexperienced side, however, they have
adjusted very well - they stumbled out of the starting
gate at 1-3, and things looked bleak. But they then
proceeded to win 8 of 9 matches (the only loss coming to
the Challengers by 2 wickets) to clinch a playoff spot.
They looked to be a side that was building a lot of
momentum going into the playoffs... until they failed to
chase 140 against Milwaukee United last week at Hanover
Park, which squandered some of the momentum and has left
them at #5 in the standings.

Purdue relies on its youth and fitness to win games - they
bat deep, run hard, and field well. They are led in both
batting and bowling by skipper Pradeep (344 runs and 27
wickets - along with Kamran of Muslim Gym, one of only
2 players in the Top 15 in both runs and wickets this
season). Purdue depends on contributors all the way down
the line - they have 6 batsmen who have made fifties
this season, and 6 bowlers in double-digits in wickets.
Opener Sodhi and middle-order batsmen Appu and Vijay Garud
are the other rungetters over 200 (and keeper Ashwin has
2 fifties in only 4 matches played). The one veteran in a
side full of students, Prof. Ravi is the most effective
spinner along with Sodhi, and Chintan and Ruchir provide
the swing and speed respectively.

This game should depend a great deal on which team can
adjust easiest and most quickly to the Washtington Park
pitch, on which neither has played all year - whichever
team can adjust quickest will probably have the edge in
this quarterfinal.
Written by: Sadiq Yusuf

________________________________________________________________
Sent via the WebMail system at midwestcricket.org

Playoff Preview : Division Two - by Sadiq Yusuf

Tomorrow brings my favourite weekend of the
cricketing season - the Playoffs are finally
here! And, starting with Division Two, there
are some wonderfully intriguing matchups to
look forward to.

#5 Arsenal vs #12 Madison

An interesting matchup between two teams that
have not faced each other in a couple of years.

Coming off a disappointing 2005 season, the
veteran Arsenal outfit has been solid all year
but for a little wobble in the middle - they
started the season with 5 consecutive wins
(plus a rainout). Then they suffered 3 consecutive
losses against IIT, Peoria (by 3 runs) and
Illinois - all 3 playoff sides, including the
two top seeds. After this wobble, however,
Arsenal have steadied themselves and come into
the playoffs on the back of another 5-game winning
streak, squeezed out of a first-round bye only on
runrate.

The core of the Arsenal team remains the same -
the batting is still led by skipper Swetal
(once again the top-scorer of the side with
278 runs), with the usual 150+ contributions
from Sanjeev, Narasimha and Sridhar, all of
whom have been Top 15 performers in the past.
The one important newcomer is Surya, who racked
up 200+ runs in only 6 innings is his first
go-around as an Arsenal player. The bowling
consists of 4 double-digit wickettakers, led
by a resurgent Sharief who has claimed 22 wickets
in 10 games. The strength of the bowling lies
more in its depth and variety, however - 6
different bowlers have claimed 3-fers or better
this season, and there are 3 pacemen (Sharief,
Prakash and Ayush), and 2 spinners (leggie Narasimha
and offspinner Sanjeev, long considered one of the
best spinning duos in the division) among the main
bowlers.

While Arsenal was always on course for the
playoffs this season, the same cannot be said
of their opponents, Madison CC. One of the
best teams in the league a year ago, Madison
suffered major losses thru graduation.
With many new faces, Madison stumbled out of
the gate losing their first 2 matches, and at
3-4-1 after 8 matches their season looked lost.
They turned it around and have played
their best cricket of the season in the second
half, however, winning 5 out of 6 games to
make the playoffs, including 3 wins against
very solid sides in Lucky, AAA and MDS. Their
only loss in the last 2 months was against
the rampant Illinois team, giving an indication
of how well they are playing coming into the
playoffs.

Madison's batting is led by someone Arsenal
knows very well - their own former player
Sudheer! One of the best batsmen in the league,
the remarkably consistent Sudheer has had a
terrific year - he has put up 370 runs this
season, and also leads the attack having
claimed 17 wickets with his legspin. Julius,
skipper Aslam, Linu and Hari, all pacemen,
are the other main bowlers - and Madison will
rely on them for batting as well, especially
on the hitting abilities of Linu and Julius
for the acceleration. Former skipper Murari,
and keepers Mitesh and Shyam round out a
deep batting lineup.

This is a matchup of two hot teams, both playing
some of their best cricket in the past couple
of months, and thus both hoping to go far in
the playoffs. It should make for a fascinating
game tomorrow.

#6 MDS vs #11 Advancers

On WP #2, the star-studded MDS lineup will be
taking on the Advancers.

When the season began, MDS was considered one
of the strongest teams in the division - a playoff
side last year, that had picked up 4 new Division
One players and were considered a major threat
for the title. They have been one of the most
interesting sides to watch all year - given
the high expectations they stumbled to a shocking
start, going 1-2-1 after 4 games. They then
got on their expected roll, however, winning
8 consecutive games (and simultaneously making
the quarters of the Night Tournament), playing
very good cricket along the way. They have,
however, suffered a little wobble again at
the end of the year - they collapsed from a
strong position to lose a big game to IIT
a couple of weeks ago, and then played without
two regulars and lost to a desperate Madison
outfit a week ago to end up #6 going into
the playoffs.

MDS's batting is led by the two Asif's - Ali
with 402 runs, and Syed with 388, both in
the midst of big seasons. Then come the two
excellent allrounders, the Superlative
Southpaw Nasir Yemani (who has been more
effective with the ball this year, but remains
an attractive and highly dangerous batsman),
and Syed Khadry (one of the finest left arm
spinners in the league, who has also batted
well enough to have one century this year).
With veteran Muneer the top wickettaker and
former First Division players Akbar and
Firasath, this is a team that goes into the
playoffs with very high expectations.

Taking them on will be the Advancers, one of
the more interesting teams in the entire
league. A team of consultants, mostly from
AdvanceSoft, this is a side that is always
hard to get a handle on, because it changes
so much from week to week due to work-reasons.
They have used no less than 25 players this
year, and only 2 players have even played
10 games! But the Advancers have been good
enough to overcome the major handicaps of a
rapid turnover and lack of a settled XI from
week to week, to make the playoffs anyway - a
quite remarkable achievement that few other
teams would have managed.

They have done it, however, because they have
some very good players - Suresh and Shakir are
both quite excellent players, who rarely get
to play enough games. Shakir, for example,
has made 200 runs and claimed 11 wickets...
in 6 games! Extrapolated over a full season
that would make him one of the league's finest
allrounders - but because he usually only plays
about half a dozen games, this terrific player
usually flies under the league radar. The
other leading bowlers are skipper RamGopal
(who has played only 7 games), Saurabh
and Ramesh.

Probably for the first time all season, we
may see the Advancers best XI take the field
together tomorrow, against a highly talented
MDS side. It should be a fun game to watch.

#7 Chicago Giants vs # 10 QC Kings

Another battle of contrasting teams in this
matchup tomorrow, between the Giants and Kings.

The Giants, as seems to be their habit almost
every year, started their season slowly.
At the halfway point they were 3-3-1, and when
they then went through the highly controversial
forfeit against Evanston, their season looked
to be in deep trouble. But this is a team
of proven resilience, and it was demonstrated
yet again this season. From the low-point of
the Evanston game, the Giants turned into road
warriors - they went on the road three
consecutive weeks, and beat Peoria, Springfield
and Jolly Rovers back-to-back-to-back to
ressurect their season. Finally returning
home they beat a very good Suburban side,
before wrapping up with a walkover against
Deccan Blues. They have thus gone from
near-oblivion post-Evanston to sailing into
the playoffs with a comfortable #7 seed.

This is a veteran Giants team, that has
remained fairly constant over the past few
seasons. Still led by the ever-reliable
Yaseen in batting, followed by the usual
trio of Asim, Amer and Rizwan (who, also
as per usual, lead the bowling too), along
with the swing of Moatsim. Once again it
is the depth and variety of bowling that
is at the core of the Giant's success -
they have 7 bowlers who have claimed 3-fers
or better this season, giving the captain
a variety of bowling options.

Taking them on will be New Boys QC Kings.
A brand-new team to our league, it has been
a team that is sometimes hard to get a handle
on. QC Kings started the season by going 6-1
in the first half, and there were suspicions
that a new powerhouse had joined the league,
as they seemed well on course for a Top Four
spot. But they have stumbled in the second
half - their only win on the field since
has come against Springfield, along with
walkovers from Warriors and CCI, as they
made the playoffs as #10 seed.

Despite a couple of collapses, the batting
for QC Kings has been very dangerous all
year. Led by HariKiran with 444 runs, Suken,
Rahim and Balaji have been very solid
contributors. The bowling relies heavily
on Nokhram and Rahim, two of the better
wickettakers in the league. If this team
can regain the form they showed in the
first half of the season, they could yet be
threats to go very deep into the playoffs.

#8 Suburban vs #9 Peoria CC

Suburban is another side that looked to have
a very good chance at a Top Four spot until
late in the year. After a 3-2 start, this
veteran side ran off 5 consecutive victories
(including inflicting the only loss of the
season on Illinois Cricket Club), and at
8-2-1 were sitting pretty. But consecutive
losses to end against Capitol and Giants
pushed them out of any possibility of a
first-round bye.

Their batting is led by veteran Mushir, who
has had an excellent season piling up 380
runs. There is usually solid support from
Ravi, Mayur, Mateen et al. The bowling is
deep - led by Vishal with 22 wickets, there
are 5 bowlers with double-digit wickets this
season. The stats may not always look
overwhelming, but Suburban has always been a
team with a history of some very good players.
Keeper Roger, for example, has played only 5
games this year - but has averaged 48. Chetan
played only 3 games, but his 67 was the critical
factor in the biggest win of the season, over a
rampant Illinois side with a very strong bowling
lineup. When the full-strength XI takes the
field for the playoffs, Suburban will as
usual be solid all the way down the line.
With a team of their storied history in
our league, nobody would expect any less.

While Suburban is one of the oldest and
most storied clubs in our league, their
opponents Peoria are a brand new team in
their first season, but still one of the
most intriguing stories of the year. Last
year Rivercity was the #3 rated side in
Division One, and 8 of them left to form
Peoria CC in Division Two this season - as
soon as that happened, Peoria automatically
became one of the favourites in Division
Two going into the season, being expected
to dominate.

Given that, hower, they struggled, stumbling
out of the game at 0-2. At the halfway point
of the season Peoria was 3-4 and in quite a
bit of trouble. They demonstrated their
resilience then, however, beating Arsenal by
3 runs, and turning it around. With the
pressure on, they have won 6 of 7 games in
the second half of the year, the only loss
coming to the Giants in a game reduced to
25-overs-a-side by rain.

Led by Venkat with 302 runs in the batting,
Peoria is a deep batting lineup - they have
6 batsmen who have scored 200 or more this
season. The bowling is led by Kiran with
19 wickets, but there are 7 bowlers who
have claimed 3-fers or better this year.
Skipper Madhu has long been regarded as one
of the most dangerous allrounders in the
league, even if he hasnt really exploded
in Division Two so far this year, and
Venkat, Vivek, Kiran, Kalyan etc are all
former Division One performers. Peoria's
biggest challenge might be the adjustment
to the surface - they go from a spongy
tennis-ball bouncing surface at home in
Mossville to the fast skiddy matting of
Washtington Park tomorrow. But if they
do adjust to it... then this is a team of
depth and experience in both batting and
bowling, that could go far in the playoffs
just like their first-round opponents
Suburban. All of which should make it a
fascinating encounter to watch.

Three years ago, IIT was a #5 seed that went
all the way to the Division Two finals and
ended up promoted to Division One. Last year
it was Phoenix that was a #5 seed, that also
ended up in the finals and earned promotion.
We have seen this in the recent past - a team
that plays on this first weekend in Division
Two very often ends up grabbing that
Cinderella Slipper and going all the way
to the Big Dance.

Who will be the Cinderella Story this year? We
start to find out tomorrow. Whoever shows up at
Washtington Park tomorrow should have a pretty
fun day.
Written by: Sadiq Yusuf

________________________________________________________________
Sent via the WebMail system at midwestcricket.org

Midwest Cricket Fantasy League

Hurry.. Last Day to submit your teams !!

Please submit your Midwest Cricket's fantasy team for the playoffs to dreamteam@midwestcricket.org. Registration ends on Sept 15th-9:00pm.

Steps:
1. Choose your dream team(11 players) from players in any of the playoff teams in division-1 and/or division-2.
2. Give your dream team a name.
3. Send an email to dreamteam@midwestcricket.org with the team name and your list of players (preferably in an excel sheet).

New: We will allow a maximum of 3 players to be changed from the roster per week.

We will continue to update the points(from the MVP system) for all the teams during the playoffs. The person whose team has the most number of points is declared the winner.

PS: Many thanks to the two Vijay's from Purdue, Ram from Eagles and desi_babu in volunteering to maintain the data on a weekly basis.

Discussion Board: Games starting Sept 9th

Discussion Board to discuss the matches over the weekend, the upcoming Abid Laheri quarter final matches and anything else

Sadiq Yusuf talks about Div I 's standout teams and performers this year ( 5 minutes)

Video clip prepared by: Alpesh Gohil ( NoStars CC)
Interviewed at Community Park on Sunday, Sept 10th

Cricket in USA: from BBC

Here is an article from BBC News about the growth of cricket in USA.

Discussion Board: Sept 5-8

Discussion Board to discuss the upcoming matches and anything else ( "Open Thread" has been renamed to a more simple Discussion Board).

Would you be interested to submit your own fantasy cricket team for the playoffs? Yes No Free polls from Pollhost.com

MVP for the month of August-06

For the month of Aug-06, we had 34 games in Div-1, 39 games in Div-2, 11 games in Div-30/30 and 11 games in Abid Laheri Night Tournament. We had 2 centuries in Div-1, 5 centuries and a 99 in Div-2, 0 centuries in Div-30/30 and 1 century in Abid Laheri Night Tournament.

Div-1MVP: Afroze Siddiqui-Bears and Simran Sodhi-Purdue

Afroze and Simran lead the table with 31 points.
Afroze scored 149 runs and captured 9 wickets. He has scores of 63, 43, 28, 25.
Simran scored 246 runs and captured 2 wickets. He has scores of 111, 64, 43, 28.
Afroze and Simran are closely followed by Kamran Khan-Muslim Gymkhana with 30 points.

Div-2MVP: Satha Sivapragasam-Capitol

Satha leads the points table with 34 points. He scored 208 runs and took 5 wickets. He scored one century, 150(*).
Satha is closely followed by Lakshmi Rajaramchandran - IIT with 33 points and Rupnaraine Seenarain with 31 points.

Div-30/30MVP: Kamlesh Amin-South Barrington

Kamlesh leads the table with 14 points. He has scored 53 runs and captured 4 wickets. He has scored one half century(53).
He is followed by Saif Baqai-Hammond Cricket Club, Asif Ali-Rockers, Prashant Vengala-Rockers with 13 points each.

Abid Laheri Night Tournament MVP: Narpreet Walia-Royals

Narpreet leads the table with 23 points. He has scored 115 runs and captured 4 wickets. He has scores of 108(*) and 7.
Narpreet is followed by Asif Mahmood-Flames with 19 points and Irfan Siddiqui - Chargers with 13 points.