Admin November 12, 2024
Three centuries were scored on the opening day of 2024 USA Cricket Men’s 45-over Nationals that was generally dominated more by bowlers than batters in difficult late season conditions at Woodley Park in Southern California.
Photo credit: Peter Della Penna
By Peter Della Penna in Los Angeles (Twitter/X @PeterDellaPenna)
Former USA vice-captain Aaron Jones plus a trio of America’s youngest batting stars claimed Player of the Match Awards on the opening day of the 2024 USA Cricket 45-over Men’s National Championships on Tuesday afternoon at Woodley Park in Van Nuys, California. Dallas, Texas 21-year-old Ali Sheikh raised the first century of the day for Southwest Zone before he was later followed by South Zone’s Jones as well as East Zone’s 19-year-old Achilles Browne. Former USA U19 opening bat Prannav Chettipalayam looked on course to join them before he was dismissed for 88, but his top-score was still good enough to earn him match honors in his Mid Atlantic Zone’s win over USA Blue.
The tournament had originally been announced as the USA Cricket 50-over National Championships. However, all teams agreed upon arrival in California before the start of the tournament that the matches would be 45-over games due to seasonal factors in southern California including overnight dew preventing a start time anytime before 9:00 am and subsequently a local sunset time in Van Nuys of 4:50 pm at the start of the tournament.
Sheikh impressed not just for producing the highest score of the day, 117 not out off 100 balls including 10 fours and five sixes, but for the way in which he did it. Southwest had been 55 for 0, but Sheikh entered at No. 5 with the score at 66 for 3 in the 12th over following the quick dismissals of USA senior team players Sushant Modani and Nitish Kumar. After a 35-run stand with Shayan Jahangir, Southwest fell to 102 for 5 when Jahangir was out top-edging a pull to short third man for 20 before Harmeet Singh fell in the following over given lbw for 1.
Southwest slid further to 170 for 7 before Sheikh and Rushil Ugarkar turned the innings around with an unbroken 94-run stand to take Southwest to 264 for 7 in their 45 overs. Sheikh produced a tremendous late burst, benefiting from a dropped chance on 93 when a skied heave over mid-on held up in strong swirling winds and was spilled over the boundary for four. Two balls later, a flat drive along the ground gave him three figures off 96 balls. A three to end the 44th over put him on strike for the start of the final over. After a single, he got back on strike for the penultimate delivery and ended the innings with back to back sixes over deep midwicket.
USA Red pushed Southwest early in their reply behind a half-century from former USA U19 player Rehman Dar, but the left-hander fell for 57 miscuing a sweep flat to Sheikh at midwicket in the ring to give Zia Shahzad a wicket making it 137 for 4 in the 27th and from there USA Red struggled to regroup. Shahzad had earlier taken a sensational diving catch at mid-off to dismiss Unmukt Chand for 19 and ended with 2 for 54. Sheikh followed up his century with 1 for 29 in seven overs of left-arm spin. Young right arm quicks Aarin Nadkarni and Ugarkar took 3 for 19 in 3.2 overs and 3 for 38 in seven overs respectively for the remaining wickets as USA Red was bowled out for 197 to complete a 67-run win for Southwest.
Jones’ century was the second of the day, coming in a tense but successful chase for South Zone, who hauled down a target of 240 to beat Midwest Zone by two wickets with a ball to spare. Jones entered in the second over at 5 for 1 and looked like he’d take South calmly across the line as he teamed with Sagar Patel for a 115-run second wicket partnership. But wickets began steadily falling after Patel was dismissed, culminating with the big one of Jones, who chipped a low full toss from Phani Simhadri to extra cover for 110 off 108 balls, ending a knock that included six fours and four sixes. It left the score at 204 for 5 with a batting lineup that had struggled to produce runs elsewhere in spite of the fact that the target was less than a run a ball. However, tailenders Adam Khan and Akhil Posa eventually scrambled the winning runs in the final over.
Chettipalayam wrapped up Player of the Match honors in a 60-run Mid Atlantic win over USA Blue, though he fell 12 runs short of a century. He struck eight fours and a six in his 101-ball knock, repeatedly using the reverse sweep effectively. However, the shot also resulted in his downfall as a failed attempt against Sujith Gowda resulted in him being given lbw to end a 142-run partnership with Gauranshu Sharma. The latter went on to make 64 before he also later fell to Gowda, whose figures of 4 for 49 sparked a rapid collapse that kept Mid Atlantic to a total of 225 for 8.
However, USA Blue were bowled out for 165 in reply, never seriously threatening the first innings total. Preet Shah took 3 for 33 while pace bowler Noman Iftikhar claimed 2 for 26 and legpinner Yasir Mohammad returned 2 for 30.
Browne’s century was a silver lining for East Zone in a match where they were thoroughly outclassed by West Zone, but it was still impressive enough to get him Player of the Match honors despite being on the losing side of a match that West won by 91 runs. Sanjay Krishnamurthi continued his impressive form in 2024 with 64 off 49 balls, including five fours and three sixes, to top-score in West’s total of 288 for 8. Browne took 2 for 60 in eight overs of right arm pace while USA fast bowler Juanoy Drysdale claimed 2 for 63 in nine overs. Left-arm spinner Sachin Mylavarapu took 2 for 46 in his nine overs as well.
Shadley van Schalkwyk followed up his 52 not out off 47 balls down the order for West by completing a superb all-round display as he wiped out East’s top order at the start of the chase, reducing them to 22 for 4 in the eighth over to kill off East’s chances. Van Schalkwyk eventually finished with figures of 3 for 7 in five overs.
Browne entered at No. 6 and teamed with Imran Uddin for a 70-run stand before adding another 64-run partnership with Tanweer Ahmed. East were 100 runs behind with two overs to go as Browne began cramping up badly on 95. He was also running out of partners too as Drysdale fell as the eighth East wicket for 4 to begin the penultimate over. A single put him on strike on 96 to start the final over. After two balls swatted to fielders in which he was unable to run due to extreme cramping, Browne latched onto a length ball from Krishnamurthi’s left-arm spin and smashed it for a straight six, his fourth to go along with seven fours, as he brought up the three-figure milestone in style off 104 balls. A final single took him to an end total of 103 not out off 106 balls and provided his side a moment of joy in spite of the lopsided defeat.
Play continues on Day Two at Woodley Park on Wednesday morning with four more matches scheduled. All four matchups feature teams who won on day one going up against sides that lost on day one.
