The day finally arrived for the bragging rights to call yourself the T20 Champions. The clash was between the two Bridgeport, CT clubs, Bridgeport Cricket Club and Cavaliers Cricket Club. On arrival at the ground, there were lots of noises and cheers well before the match. Spectators gathered around to make predictions, players of other teams had their favorites and what they believed would happen. The toss was finally spun in great anticipation, which Cavaliers captain Richard Miller won. On a big day with so much to play for, Miller and co. decided to bat to set a target for BCC. The umpire finally yelled “Let’s Play” and we were on our way for an exciting day of cricket.
Cavaliers opened the innings with two hard hitting batsmen, Garret Matthew and Peter Haywood. Matthew and Haywood both scored excellent fifties in earlier matches and came out to bat positively. BCC opened the bowling with Steve Pitter and Tony Brown. Both the bowlers were a little erratic in the beginning and finally settled down to a good line and length. Matthew and Haywood were cruising along, cruising a little too careful. While the two were batting, the run rate was below 6 an over, but nevertheless they kept ticking the scoreboard. With pace and aggression Pitter finally provided BCC with a breakthrough in he 5th over. After being beaten couple of times by Pitter, Matthew saw his furniture flying in the air, CCC 28/1.
With the departure of Matthew, CCC’s experienced batsman Norice Brown joined Haywood who had been playing well but a little too slow/cautious which BCC did not mind. After an excellent opening spell of 8 overs from Pitter and Brown in which CCC could only manage 35 runs, BCC brought on Lloyed Reid and Adnan Khaliq to replace Pitter and Brown. Reid as usual was at his best with swinging deliveries which kept the batsmen off balance. However, that can’t be said about Khaliq who was erratic with minimal pace and swing. He was hit for 11 runs in his one and only over of the match and was replaced by Andre Wilson.
With the swing of Reid and spin of Wilson, CCC two batsmen kept the scoreboard moving along for a partnership of 45 runs. While playing Reid carefully, the CCC batsmen tried to go after the bowling of Wilson who was flighting the ball in the air to generate catches, but those catches were not being held. Although there were some dropped catches, Wilson was being hit hard by Haywood and Brown until Brown was beautifully bowled by Reid. After Brown’s departure, Sheldon Smith walked in and showed his intentions right away, after being dropped by Khaliq couple of times (a day to forget for Khaliq) Sheldon hit a straight six off Wilson. At the end of 16th over, CCC were 87/3 with tons of batting and hard hitting left to come. With 4 overs to bowl, Jonathan Smith looked at Kewin Lyle and Raza Khan to share the bowl at the end. With Haywood still at the crease and bringing up his fifty, CCC looked at a score in the 170-180 range. However that was not to be, as both Lyle and Khan bowled excellent spells and restricting CCC to only 123/6. The two bowlers only gave up 25 runs and took 3 very crucial wickets of Haywood, Richard Miller and Lenox Brown. Who on their day can wreck many bowlers with their aggression.
With relatively a decent target of 123, BCC started their chase with Kewin Lyle and Jovaugh Rose. For CCC, their captain Miller opened the bowling, a decision that he must have regretted as he bowled an 11-ball over in which he gave up 13 runs. The two BCC batsmen were rolling along at almost 10 runs an over, and at the end of 5th over the score read 48/0. With the acceleration that BCC had received, CCC’s captain introduced spin. And the decision paid dividends right away as Rose hit a straight drive back to the bowler, which Sheldon held on to for an excellent catch. At 49/1, BCC’s captain Jonathan Smith walked in to join Lyle. After a short partnership, Lyle was trapped LBW off the bowling of Oniel Wilson for 18, BCC 55/2.
At 55/2, BCC decided to promote Steve Pitter up the order to keep the acceleration going. With Jonathan and Pitter at the crease, BCC quickly moved on to 75, at which point Sheldon bowled an excellent quicker delivery to bowl Jonathan for 23, BCC 75/3 and still in control of the match. With Jonathan’s departure, Reid walked in to settle the innings down for BCC. After a 33 run partnership and two huge sixes off the bat of Pitter, BCC reached 108. At this point only needing another 16 runs to win, Steve tried to launch Oniel on to I-95 and was bowled cleverly, BCC 108/4.
At this point there was not a soul at New Haven’s cricket ground that could predict what was to come in the next few moments. At 108/4, Raza Khan walked in to join Reid and bring the T20 Championship home to Bridgeport, but that was not to be for Khan as he was beautifully bowled by Roopram to a ball that skidded through his gate 111/5. After Raza’s departure, Reid was clean bowled by Roopram and CCC’s players and crowd came alive at New Haven, BCC 113/6. BCC knew that they had enough experienced players to ride the ship, or so they thought.
After the wickets of Khan and Reid, Khaliq and Robin Lynch joined in the middle but could not stay too long as Khaliq top edged a slower delivery from Haywood into the hands of Miller at short mid-on, and BCC rattled to 116/7. The match took an unexpected turn and BCC was left stranded and needing 8 runs to win. The match and the atmosphere became intense at New Haven, with no one knowing what will happen on the next ball. All the players and the crowd looked at each other in shock, amazement and disbelief waiting for the next ball to be bowled. With the score of 116/7 Andre Wilson joined Robin and the two tried to take a risky single that would cost BCC the wicket of Andre. Everything was coming crumbling down for BCC. After an exceptional start, they were hanging by the thread at 116/8 at the end of 14th over. In the 15th over, Bridgeport almost lost another wicket, but destiny was on BCC’s side today as Ramroop generated an edge off the bat of Hassan Saiyed which the wicketkeeper dropped and possibly the T20 Championship. On the next ball, Saiyed took a single to bring Robin on strike and he delivered with a match saving six to release the pressure off BCC. The 16th over begin with BCC needing two runs to win with two wickets remaining. They achieved the necessary target with 3.3 overs still to be bowled.
After playing an extraordinary regular season championship game in 2007, BCC played another nail bitter in their first ever T20 Championship win. From cruising along at 108/4, BCC stumbled to 116/8 with excellent bowling by Cavalier bowlers to bring them back into the game. As the cricket guru’s say, experience and maturity in a pressure situation/match comes thru and BCC showed that it has tons of it. With the regular season upon us, BCC will be flying high and look to repeat as Champions in the regular season.
As always, thanks to the many Bridgeport members and fans for making it feel like an achievement to be remembered. Signing off…Razzmatazz
Razzmatazz is Bridgeport Cricket Club editor/writer
On a gorgeous late May afternoon, the 2007 regular season champions the Bridgeport Cricket Club took on the heavyweight of New Haven Eagles and the return of Brian Murphy. Eagles captain Khalid Masood won the all important toss and elected to bat first on a hard, bouncy wicket at Newfield Park, Bridgeport. Earlier in the day the first semifinal was played on the same wicket, which the Cavaliers Cricket Club won handsomely over the New Milford Cricket Club by 50-plus runs.
The pitch looked good for both the bowlers and the batsmen. Eagles opened the innings with captain Masood and hard-hitting Mehmood Sial. The two openers were cruising along at a brisk rate of over 8 runs per over after the first 4 overs. In the fifth over, Tony Brown who had bowled an excellent spell (1/14) broke through and took the wicket of Masood (15) who tried to play a flick shot through fine leg and scooped a catch to square leg into the safe hands of Kenneth (Don) Pierre, 36/1. Masood’s fall saw the return of Brian Murphy to the crease, but this time in an Eagles uniform. Although Murphy started off a little shaky, he relaxed and started to play his shots all around the field.
Couple of overs later, Brown bowled an excellent delivery that pitched on middle and off to take the outside edge of Sial, which was turned down by umpire to a stunned BCC team and crowd. After all the hoopla of the not out given was over, BCC and NHE went back to business. This time Sial and Murphy started to score at a quicker rate with boundaries coming their way, though some off the edge of bat from Sial flying over the fielders head. Finally another breakthrough, but this time a crucial direct hit runout by Andre Wilson that saw Sial walking back to the pavilion, 69/2. After Sial’s long walk back, ex-Eagles captain Afzal walked in, to continue the brisk rate of scoring. However, BCC had other ideas as they clamped Afzal for room with the bowling of U.S.A. bowler Steve Pitter who was driving back straight from the airport after their tour of England. The pace was not something that Afzal found comfort with and tried to accelerate the run rate by going after the bowling of Lloyd Reid (2007 Championship game MVP), that would come back to hurt Eagles. After hitting a beautiful four off Reid, Afzal tried to pull a good length delivery over midwicket but could not do so as he was cramped for room and lobbed an easy catch to Don at square leg, 79/3.
At this point BCC knew that the match was starting to swing their way, but only one hurdle left. That of getting the wicket of Murphy who started to take on the bowlers by playing shots all over the field. BCC countered with Adnan Khaliq, and his first delivery went straight over long on and into the street for a six off the bat of Murphy. Adnan bowled a shaky spell (1/40) in which he gave up too many boundaries and could not sustain the run rate as he usually does. With Murphy and Shafqat at the crease, the two men started to build a decent partnership, which Reid broke with a beautiful delivery to Murphy that cut back into the right hander and zipped through the gap of bat and pad and broke Murphy’s furniture, 102/4. BCC got their man and looked to sustain the run rate and control the match from here onwards. After couple of more small partnership between Shafqat and tailenders, the New Haven Eagles ended their innings at 148/8 in 20 overs.
After a short innings break, BCC opened their chase with Kewin Lyle and 18 year old newcomer from Jamaica Jovaugh Rose. BCC’s inning begin on a positive note as Lyle started off aggressively and took 14 off the first over of Asif Jafri. However, his aggression didn’t last much longer, as in the next over he was caught beautifully by Raja Ali off the bowling of Mehmood Sial for 11, BCC 1/17.
Lyle’s departure would become a nightmare for the Eagles. BCC’s captain Jonathan Smith walked in, who was long over due for runs this year. Until this inning, he hadn’t done much so far with the bat and scored a few ducks as well. But that was all about to change in a big way. Smith and Rose tag teamed the Eagles and smacked the Eagle bowlers out of the ground at will. Smith took on most of the strike and made all the spectators glued to their seats, a Sunday afternoon worth spending at the Newfield Park. Smith didn’t let any bowler settle in, as he hooked, pulled, drove, and cut every bowler for fours and sixes. He pulled Sial over deep-backward square leg for back to back fours that got all the spectators off their feet to cheer. While Smith was cutting the feathers off the Eagles bowlers, Rose continued his self-sustained innings in which he hit two fours and a six. After a partnership of 97 runs, Rose was run out by a direct hit for 29, BCC 2/114.
With smith still at the crease Hassan Saiyed went in to bat. Saiyed was batting for the first time after an 8 year gap, and it showed as he could not time the ball or get to the pitch of it. Saiyed’s arrival slowed down the run rate a bit, but only for a short while because Smith continued to take care of bulk of the runs. With the introduction of Murphy into the attack, Smith did not let him settle in and went after Murphy from the first ball and took 13 runs of his one and only over and 19 off Raja Ali’s one and only over. At 140 after 16 overs, Smith was bowled by Afzal, but a little too late in the innings. With only 9 needed to win from 4 overs, Steve Pitter went into take care of business. Khalid Masood came back into the attack, a decision that he would like to forget as Steve Pitter hit the two longest sixes over midwicket that landed in orbit, to seal the win for Bridgeport Cricket Club and send New Haven Eagles home crawling without any feathers.
The final of the T20 will see the clash of City of Bridgeport. Bridgeport Cricket Club vs. Cavaliers Cricket Club, both call Bridgeport their home and play at Newfield Park. Bridgeport Cricket Club would like to thank all their spectators that were out there supporting their boys in a crucial match, and would also like to thank Cavaliers Cricket Club for the ground preparations. - Razzmatazz
Razzmatazz is Bridgeport Cricket Club editor/writer