Central West Vs South West - May 24th 2003

It seemed like a beautiful day for cricket with the sun shining bright in
Chicago as the Western conference Championships began with Central West
taking on the defending champions from South West. However very soon it
became clear to the visitors from both teams as to why Chicago is called the
Windy city. Even though the temperature seemed pleasant at 60 degrees, the
chilly winds made it seem at least 10 degrees cooler.

Arjun Rajagopalan won the toss for Central West and promptly put the South
West side in to bat. Usman and Bilal opened the bowling for Central West and
it wasnt long before Bilal had both opening batsmen out in his opening spell
including the much talked about, Rashid Zia. Although Central West had
bagged a couple of early wickets, the scoring rate was pretty good as South
West reached 69/2 in 13 overs at the break.

Aijaz Ali and Abhishek Powar started to build the innings for South West as
Arjun, Abid, Asif and Piyush did a great job restricting the scoring. After
40 overs, South West had managed 175/2 with both batsmen well set for the
slog. However this was when the Central West bowlers did an awesome job
restricting the South West team to only 240/5 in their alloted 50 overs with
Piyush grabbing a couple of wickets in the end. Abhishek had scored 86 and
Aijaz was left unbeaten on 96. However they managed to get only 65 runs in
the last 10 overs with 8 wickets in hand.

In reply Central West started very strongly with Rahul Kukreti looking very
solid and Asif hitting the ball to all parts of the park. Asif hit two huge
sixes in one over but could not control his aggressive instinct and skied
the ball to midoff in the very same over for a well made 42 off only 24
balls. The momentum was totally with Central West as they had already got 72
off the first 8 overs. Piyush Patel joined Rahul and looked pretty good out
in the middle playing sensible cricket until he was given out LBW for 20
runs. Rahul(38) who was playing so patiently until then lost his
concentration and the score was a 134/3 when Dennis joined Amir Nanjee. Amir
then played a knock to remember. He hit the star studded South West attack
to every corner in the field and it seemd like even an addition of 3-4
fielders wouldn't restrict his scoring. Runs were coming thick and fast and
Dennis too showed what he is capable off with some elegant flicks and on
drives. Both the batsmen ran very well between the wickets whenever the ball
didnt cross the boundary ropes. In the end it wasnt even close with both
batsmen remaining unbeaten and central West winning with over 6 overs to
spare and 7 wickets in hand. Amir was unbeaten on a brilliant 81 and Dennis
a very useful 24.

Central West had shocked the favourites and they hadnt even really been
tested. Amir Nanjee was deservedly awarded the MVP of the match. People were
talking about this young team from Texas who were now no longer underdogs.
Nothing was going wipe that broad smile from coach Shahanawaz's face that
night, not even...... (lets just say some people really BONDED with their
roommates on such an emotional day)

--- Vinod Shankar