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
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Sent via the WebMail system at midwestcricket.org
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