It all started Friday night @JFK with a spectacular display of fireworks by the township of Sayreville setting the stage for the weekend full of cricket fireworks @JFK.
Day 1:
The tournament started in Saturday with Toms River taking on Junoon 11 in the morning. Junoon 11 batted first and scored 110+ runs in 20 overs with some amazing cricket shots by Jamil and Niaz. Tomsriver stated a bit shaky but the innings was stabilized by their skipper Ketan who took his team past the finished line with his sensible batting.
The 2nd match between Intone and Piscataway was abandoned due to some misunderstanding about the start time of the match. Piscataway players had prior commitments leading them to give a walk over to Intone.
The 3rd match was played between NJ Stars and NJCC. NJ stars batting first scored 160+ runs in 20 overs. The innings started with some quick wickets at the top and then came the heavy hitters. Vijay and Rizwan from NJ stars lead from the front and fired rockets into the air from all directions. The duo scored about 80+ runs in about 7 overs setting the stage for a huge score. The momentum was followed up with some heavy hitting by the other NJ Stars players towards the end of the innings. NJCC run chase started disastrously loosing thier openers in the first 2 overs. Abbas from NJ stars bowled brilliantly sending the next 2 batsmen back to pavilion with 2 successive deliveries bringing their skipper Daval and Vishal into the middle. The next 4 overs witnessed a great contest between the ball and bat. Vishal from NJCC hit some amazing boundaries over the rope with one of them almost landed in the pond. His brief display of fireworks gave some hope to the NJCC team which also lead the NJ Stars team into a huddle to figure a way to contain Vishal. He scored about 30+ runs before he was sent packing by a slower ball crashing onto his stumps. The rest of the NJCC innings was un eventful with the rest of batsmen throwing away their wickets trying to hit the ball over the rope. The innings came to end with 70+ runs giving NJ Stars a big win.
The 4th match was played between Cataret Lions and Gladiators team. Lions batted first and lost their opener in the first over bringing their skipper Vimal into the middle. Vimal started of briskly scoring 15+ runs in 4 balls before falling to a deceiving ball caught in the deep. The innings progressed slowly with sensible batting by their middle order bastman. Gladiators bowlers bowled consistently restricted the Lions to 90+ runs. Gladiators run chase was a disaster losing their top order in the first 4 overs. The team lost 4 wickets with just 20+ runs on the board. Niel joined the opener Meher in the middle, the 2 batted sensibly with Meher holding the fort at one end while Niel exploding at the other end hitting boundaries all over ground. The duo put in 60+ runs together which turned the match in Gladiators favor. The Gladiators came on top easily at the end winning the match comfortably.
The curtain came down for the Day 1 events with Gladiators team celebrating their win with some toxic liquids and roasting some birds on fire at one of their team mates place…
Day 2: Fun filled day..
The 2nd day started with the first Semi final between Intone CC and Toms River CC. The game started with high expectations and a tough competition between the bat and ball as both teams brought in their best players to the game.. The team roasters from both side filled with great all rounder’s and heavy hitters. Tome River batted first starting their innings with a flier backed up with some powerful hits to the boundary by their top order batsman. The loose balls bowled by the Intone bowlers were dispatched to the boundaries with ease and at one stage it looked like Toms River were heading towards 150+ target. The scoring rate came down with some quick wickets and sensible bowling by the change bowlers backed up by great fielding by some of the young legs in the team. Toms River innings was restricted to 110+ runs setting the stage for a competitive match. The run chase was full of events with Intone CC started their innings cautiously and Tome River bowling started with a strong appeal for caught behind the very first ball of the innings. The umpire ruled in batsman favor providing a huge relief to the chasing team and their opener Preetam who is their star player. The other opener started his innings cautiously giving support to Preetam who consistently dispatched the loose balls to the rope. Intone’s top order batted brilliantly and laid the foundation for a victory. Vijay came into the middle at the fall of Preetam’s wicket and started his fireworks display with 2 huge six’s on the leg side. His shot selection was amazing and showed everyone why he is the top scorer and leading wicket take of NJPCL. He scored a quick 30+ runs setting a easy win for Intone. Intone reached its target in 16 overs.
The 2nd semi final was played between Gladiators and NJ Stars. NJ Stars won the toss and elected to Bat first. NJ Stars started their innings bullishly with the openers Abbas and Farhan scoring singles and boundaries easily. The openers out in 30+ runs in the first 4 overs before loosing their opener Abbas with a faint edge to the keeper. NJ Stars was scoring boundaries with ease and consistently scoring at an 8-9 runs an over. They lost 2 quick wickets turning the momentum towards the Gladiators. Rizwan then walked into the middle and then the troubles started for Gladiators in the field. Rizwan hit the first ball he faced upishly towards the square boundary on the offside and fielder misjudged an easy catch which bounced over to the rope one bounce. The next ball he hit the ball to the long off boundary which bounced from the fielder hands over the rope for a six. With 2 life’s in 2 balls and luck on his side Rizwan dispatched the ball to the boundary at will. He got 2 more chances by some lack luster fielding by the Gladiator Seniors putting down some easy chances giving a huge advantage to the NJ Stars batsmen. Rizwan was finally sent packing by a great low single handed catch by the stand in skipper Naga. Then came in Sajeel who showed he is no less than Rizwan hitting few huge sixes and amazing square cuts the boundaries. The Gladiators player watched helplessly as the ball was being dispatched to the rope at will even by their tail ender batsman. The Gladiators stand-in skipper looked miserable in the end trying to move his fielders around to contain the runs without any success. The NJ stars innings came to end at 195 runs on board which is the highest for any team in 20 over match @JFK.
Gladiators team lost of all hopes and stood no chance to win as their started their innings. Players looked tired , dejected and looked like were nursing their wounds from harsh treatment by the opposing team. The run chase was bigger disaster than the fielding display losing their in form opener Meher in the 2nd over followed by a first ball duck of their out of form 1 down batsman. Param the other opener watched helplessly as the team lost wickets at regular intervals. They lost the 4 wickets with just 30+ runs on the board. NJ Stars started to celebrate early for their impending entry into the final. Param had other plans. He was not prepared for the embarrassing loss and took his matters into his own hands. The fireworks show in New York for 4th of July was no match compared to the fireworks displayed by Param. He fired rockets into the sky and dispatched the red ball all over the sky for the next 45 mins. NJ Stars players huddled after every over to contain him and none of their plans worked. He came out stronger every over hitting boundaries at will. He scored 25+ runs on one over bowled by their Pacer Rizwan who was brought in to contain the runs. The stars players looked helplessly and were made to feel the pain felt by the Gladiators while on the field. Suresh B on the other end enjoyed the fireworks from his front row seat at the other end of the crease giving support to Param taking singles to bring him back to strike. Param scored his maiden century in just 35 balls with 9 sixes and 7 fours. At the end of 15 overs Gladiators were 140+ runs for loss of 4 wickets needed about 50+ runs in the final 5 overs. The target once seemed insurmountable at the start of the innings seemed achievable. Param continued with his onslaught getting his team closer to victory and then the disaster struck in the 17th over. Param hit what looked like a routine 6 over the long on boundary, but Abbas from NJ stars took an unbelievable catch within an inch of the boundary standing on one Leg and stretched one arm over the rope and ball decided to stick to his hand. Param’s amazing innings came to an end with an equally amazing catch to end his brilliant and never before seen innings by any batsmen in the softball cricket (at least in the recent history). He scored 120 runs in 45 balls with 11 six’s and 8 fours. Gladiators required 30+ runs in 3 overs after Param departure, the next batsman sent in to carry Params momentum returned to the pavilion in the same over. Anup then joined Suresh in the middle to move the score forward. Anup hit 2 quick boundaries on the offside. The Target was 20+ runs in 2 overs, The 19th over was bowled by Abbas giving away just 6 runs which then left Gladiators to score 18 runs in the final over. Dhanraj was sent into bat after the dismal of Mohan who scored a boundary off the first ball of the final over as was run out the following ball. Dhanraj had 12 runs to score of the last 4 balls, the next ball was a wide and the next ball was driven for 4 runs on the offside. 6 runs 2 balls, the batsmen scored 2 runs of the fifth ball requiring 4 runs off the final ball.. NJ Star players huddled in the middle to provide support and advise to the bowler on how to bowl the final ball while on the other end Dhanraj was trying to refer to the history books to get some history lessons on how to deal with the pressure to score 4 runs off the final ball. Can he do a Javed Miandad but the bowler was no Chetan Sharma to bowl a fool toss delivery on the leg.. The bowler on the end was thinking the same and trying not to be Chetan Sharma.. The field was set, the Gladiators tent was nervous and were on their feet while some of them couldn’t believe that this came down to the last ball which was unthinkable at the start.. The batsman was ready and bowler took few steps and bowled the last delivery of the game.. The bowler decided to go with the history book and bowled a full toss on the leg and batsman was no Miandad and didn’t expect a full toss.. The ball was hit to the deep mid wicket where it was fielded by Rizwan and threw the ball to the keeper brilliantly jumped in the air to stop the ball and threw the ball the wickets.. In the end Gladiators fell short by 2 runs.. What an amazing match with fireworks display from both the sides. The hits to rope were clean and would have cleared any international boundary.. The match will go in the history as one of the best contested match in softball cricket.. in the end Param was awarded the Player of the tournament for his heroics. Watch out for this man.. Param with his trophy
Final match report to follow.. meanwhile enjoy the pictures from the tournament.. Click for Pics
