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Review of 2005 Raisinland Trophy - Youth Games
Report by Alan Weedy
 The NCCA youth squad salvaged some pride for NCCA by beating the SCCA Youth team twice over the Labor Day weekend. While their Senior counterparts were losing both games our Youth team convincingly beat a strong Southern California team that contained several members of the recently victorious USA Youth team. The team
that played against our guys on Saturday contained three members of the USA team that
recently defeated Canada, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, in an ICC sponsored tournament in
Toronto, Canada. Southern California's Captain, Abhimanyu Rajput, was voted both MVP and best
bowler of the ICC tournament and SCCA's leading batsman Ravi Timbawala was voted the best bat.
Our victory on the Sunday was even more satisfying because they brought in a fourth
member of the USA team, Usman Mohammed (Second Leading wicket taker in Canada) who had
represented the Senior team the day before.
 The Saturday game was a fairly low scoring affair and our boys managed to score only 113. The South's ground fielding and their wicket keeper Ali Mukadam were excellent and Nisarg Patel, a
left arm swing bowler produced the superb figures of 9-4-10-2. They were well supported by
some top notch off spin from their skipper (3 for 26) and their fourth USA representative, Nadir Malik, who
took 3 for 17, with a clever variety of Left arm spin. Among the early batsmen only skipper Anwar
Mangal and Pratik Singh looked comfortable and they produced a valuable stand of 49 before
Pratik's departure to a fine catch by 15 year old Siddarth Dume. There weren't too many
contributions from the middle order but Anwar showed grit and determination and continued to
grind out a few runs before being deceived by a lovely in swinging yorker from
Nisarg. Fortunately for the North the tail wagged and a fine last wicket stand by Saad (13) and Ranveer
(11*) produced an important 28 runs which would later prove to be the difference in the game.
Coach Graham must have given an important pep talk at the break because our local heroes came
roaring out of the gate like tigers. Ahmed bowled an opening maiden and in the second over Saad
removed Nisarg thanks to an excellent slip catch by Anwar. Opener, Ravi Timbawala and
wicketkeeper Ali are both fine batsmen but tight bowling pinned them down and both departed within
a few runs of each other. Ravi was the first to go when he edged one of Ahmed's late swinging
deliveries to wicket keeper Saami. Several more excellent catches then accounted for Ali, Faizan
and the dangerous Abhimanyu in quick succession. The catch that removed Ali Mukadam was one of the
highlights of the weekend. Ali slashed hard at a ball outside of his off stump and Wajid flung
himself to his left and held a remarkable catch just inches from the ground Prabhjot held the
next two, neither of them easy, and the South were reeling at 24 for 5. A period of
consolidation followed as Roshan (16) with the only double figure score in the innings and
Mitesh tried to rally the side. Debutant Ranveer generated excitement with some express deliveries
which worried the batsmen and although he had no wickets to show for his efforts he ensured that
the run rate would climb. The introduction of Nasim, fondly known as Charlie Chaplin by his
peers, broke the stubborn partnership when Mitesh edged Charlie's 6th delivery to the keeper. South
African born David Pieters joined Roshan and together they continued the struggle, taking the
score to 68 when Anwar decided to bowl his off breaks. In his 2nd over he induced both batsmen
to hit consecutive balls into the safe hands of Saad and the scoreboard read 68 for 8. Young
Siddarth added a few runs but Sher Ali cleaned up the tail and the innings ended on 84. NCCA
comfortably home by 39 runs.
Despite the Southerners bringing in speedster Usman, aka Shani, Sunday was to yield an even
more convincing result as the North steam rollered their opponents by 86 runs. Anwar won
the toss and chose to bat against what appeared to be a strong attack. The first few overs were
indeed testing as Anwar and Ajay Arora withstood some testing deliveries from speed merchants
Shani and David Pieters. Pieters in particular produced some lethal balls but the openers played
cautiously and sensibly and the tension was relieved by both men bowling too many
wides. Slowly but surely the initiative passed to the batsmen and Anwar produced a couple of superb
cover drives which persuaded the skipper to try his spinners. His 4th ball was a rank long hop
which Ajay dispatched over the square leg boundary for a lovely six, further reducing the
tension. He then replaced the Yarpie with left arm spinner Nadir Malik who had been dangerous
the previous day. His first over was uneventful and in Abhi's 2nd over disaster struck for the
visitors. Ajay rashly attempted a big hit which he merely succeeded in slogging high in the air
for what should have been a simple catch. Instead two fielders colluded to mess it up and the ball
fell safely between them. Nadir paid the price in the next over as Ajay struck 10 off the over
including another huge six over square leg. In the 13th over Nisarg, the most effective bowler
the day before, was introduced to the attack and immediately had Ajay caught behind but the
opening stand had produced 53 runs. Shani was then brought back at the opposite end
but a 3 wide and 3 singles, swiftly run by Pratik and Anwar, took the score to 59. The over before
the water break produced another 9 runs which included 2 more wild deliveries down the leg
side, each producing 2 additional runs, none of which could be faulted to the wicket keeper. In
that one over Nisarg conceded almost as many runs as he had conceded in 9 overs the day before.
After the break Anwar proceeded comfortably, with a number of stylish shots to various points on
the compass and aided by Pratik's quick running between the wickets they took the score to 84.
David P was now brought back and bowled a few excellent overs and captured the wickets of both
Pratik and Anwar in overs 20 and 24. Sadly for the South his good balls were marred again by too
many wides and at about this time the Southern fielding also began to wilt. After getting the
breakthrough they needed, in dismissing the two guys who were well set, they contrived to let the
hosts off the hook by dropping several catches. Shoaib in particular played a valuable role by
dropping anchor at one end as Wajid took advantage of the loose Southern fielding. He hit
a couple of nice fours and upped the tempo by running between the wickets like a deer and
confusing the fielders in the process. He was eventually stumped for 16 but Shehzad continued
in the same tempo and runs continued to accumulate rapidly at almost a run a ball.
Finally Shoaib succumbed to another fine Nisarg delivery but the left hander was more expensive
than he had been the day before. (161 for 5 in the 39th over) The last 6 overs yielded an
additional 38 runs as the tail again wagged vigorously with Ahmed at 14* leading the charge.
A target of 199 on the Sunnyvale ground is always a tall target and although the Southerners
started off vigorously it wasn't long before wickets began to fall. Ravi, Ali, Usman and
Abhimanyu each struck some excellent shots but all fell to fine catches by Pratik (2) Ajay,
Sahil and best of all Ahmed. Usman struck Saad a huge blow which climbed into the stratosphere but
had more height than depth. The ball probably had snow on it when it descended but somehow Ahmed
clung on to a truly amazing catch. Abhi next hit Saad for a massive 6 over long on but Ahmed
tightened the screws with a fine spell of swing bowling and produced the impressive figures of 9-4-18-4. Two wickets in consecutive balls plus 2 more falling in the next two overs (Off spinner
Sahil chipped in by bowling Mitesh in his second over) and the scoreboard rooted at a score of 62
effectively ended the game as a contest.
Credit to the last three SCCA men though as they hung on for 25 more overs, doubling the score in
the process, and demonstrated to the front line men what might have been achieved with a more
methodical approach. It wasn't too entertaining and caused our lads some frustration but it will
probably prove to be a useful lesson to both teams for future encounters. Khalid Noor showed grit and determination to score 30 not out which was the second highest score in the game. Young Siddarth held out for 30 ballls and even the number 11, Nadir Malik stuck it out for 32 balls
and hit a nice six. One of only five sixes struck in the entire two days.
The return of Saad and a few of overs of medium pace by Wajid finally broke the deadlock and the
innings wrapped with the score at 123 in the 42nd over.
Two days of excellent cricket by some very promising youngsters, highlighted by brilliant
fielding by NCCA and a mature batting performance by skipper Anwar Mangal who was an easy choice for MVP of the series.
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