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
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