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
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Sent via the WebMail system at midwestcricket.org
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