Everest/ACS Glides Easily Through To 20/20 Finals

By John L. Aaron
Everest/ACS, led by the indomitable Zamin Amin, last weekend easily slid through to the EACA’s Twenty/20 finals, scheduled for tomorrow at Idlewild Park, 223rd Street and 147th Avenue, Rosedale, Queens.

Everest/ACS with a mix of veterans, experience and some young legs, engaged both East Bank and Atlantis last weekend at Lido Beach and came away with relatively easy wins form both contests.

East Bank Succumbs Early
With an 11:00 am tee off, East Bank rallied to reach 118 in their allotted 20 overs, losing eight wickets along the way. Top scorers were Z. Sadloo with 36, D. McDonald, 26 and D. Sankar and T. McKenzie, each with 17 apiece.

Kumar Ramsabad bowling for Everest/ACS was successful in capturing 4 wickets for 24 runs off of his 4 overs, while skipper Zamin Amin grabbed 2 for 20 off of his 4 overs.

Everest/ACS in reply, reached 119 and the victory in 19.3 overs, losing six wickets along the way. Anil Solomon had an enterprising knock of 52 off the East Bank bowlers, upping his season tally significantly. S. N. Singh and K. Ganesh both made contributions of 17 each.

Bowling for East Bank: A. Sirkissoon with figures of 3-0-16-3 and A. Kirton 4-0-15-1, helped seal the deal for Everest/ACS and certainly give the team a booster for their following encounter with Atlantis.

It was the end of the road for East Bank, a team spun off from Richmond Hill with an excellent mix of experience and youth at its disposal. Should the chemistry remain balanced with this squad, a much stronger team will emerge to compete with the other top teams in the EACA in 2007. Such a situation can only help improve the high standard of play in the league, down the road.

Atlantis Folds Easily
Playing in the twilight game and indeed the twilight of their 2006 season, Atlantis folded against a tiring Everest/ACS squad at the same Lido Beach venue that saw East Bank succumb to Everest/ACS earlier in the day.

Atlantis winning the toss and inviting Everest/ACS to take first strike needed the victory to advance to the 2006 finals. However, Everest/ACS with the wind beneath its wings and two wins in the bag was having no such situation develop. The Zamin Amin led XI appeared to be in control, all the way.

Everest/ACS posted 168 for 6 in their 20 overs, with skipper Zamin Amin contributing an even half-century, before being bowled by Manoj Sirju. This, after Everest/ACS had lost its first four wickets for less than 100 runs, but still on track to score 150 runs in their 20 overs. At that rate, Atlantis would have been hard pressed to score 7.5 runs per over and without one of their more consistent batsmen not playing – Swanscot Benjamin, who was in a different delivery room watching his wife give birth to the couple’s second child.

Opening with young Kumar Ramsabad and the prolific Amjad Khan, Everest/ACS lost Khan after an explosive 14 runs (2, 6, 4, 2) from the right-hander, then Ramsabad for 14, with the score on 45. Thirty-two runs later, Anil Solomon was caught attempting to pull Atlantis’ skipper Cuthbert Mendonca, for a well-made 25 and watched by his legendary dad and former Guyana and West Indies Test player Joe Solomon. Young Solomon’s knock included 4x4’s.
The hard-hitting Terry Hastoo joined his s
kipper Amin, and added a painstaking 27 not out, and saw the 6’ 2” Everest/ACS pacer Trevor Walke add a signature six to his contribution of seven and his team’s final tally of 168 off the last ball of the inning. Thus setting Atlantis a target of 8.4 runs per over.

The Everest/ACS wickets fell at: 24, 45, 77, 80, 159 and 160. The wickets were shared by Atlantis’ M. Sirju 2 for 19, L. Deonarine 2 for 30, C. Sandy1 for 30 and C. Mendonca 1 for 40.

Atlantis in reply, saw their 2006 season vanishing before their very eyes, as an invigorated Everest/ACS, needing one more win to qualify for the finals, had Atlantis reeling on the ropes and ultimately defeating them by 79 runs. Cuthbert Mendonca in his inaugural season as Atlantis’ skipper failed to rally his troops to overcome an early deficit of 9 for 2. The skipper’s effort yielded 17 runs, before he was trapped lbw to T. Walke, with an ill-advised shot with the Atlantis score on 23. Two other wickets fell rather quickly, before the veterans William White, 21 n.o. and Keith Aaron, 12 n.o., were able to add some respectability to the Atlantis total of 89 for 6 in 20 overs.
The Atlantis wickets fell at: 8, 9, 23, 40, 40 and 53. The Everest/ACS veteran T. Walke grabbed 3 for 22, while K. Ganesh had 2 for 14 and S. Amin 1 for 16, all off of 4 overs each.

With the defeat went Atlantis’ chances of grabbing one of this year’s EACA championship titles. It was a lackluster performance by the Atlantis squad, having defeated East Bank and Bayshore Tigers in earlier matches and needing to defeat Everest/ACS to qualify for the finals. Everest/ACS with decisive wins over Bayshore Tigers, East Bank and Atlantis was assured a spot in the final against the winner of the Group I/II winner scheduled for 12:00 o’clock today between Enmore and Richmond Hill at Idlewild Park in Rosedale, Queens.

So, Everest/ACS with an impressive 2006 performance record and the runner-up in the Big-4 championship, has another shot at capturing an EACA championship title tomorrow at Idlewild Park. The team is poised to meet either Enmore or Richmond Hill. A sigh of relief, no doubt, instead of a repeat of the Big-4 final against their nemesis NY Challengers.

NY Challengers Narrowly Misses 20/20 Finals
2006 Big-4 champions NY Challengers were looking to add to the hardware already collected for the season, by adding the EACA’s 20/20 championship cup to its collection. However, fate intervened under the guise of net run rate, in a three-way tie of two wins each between said Challengers, Richmond Hill and Canal No. 2 Polder.

However, it came down to NY Challengers and Richmond Hill, both with two wins each and a net run rate difference of .10 in favor of Richmond Hill.

Leading up to the net run rate, was Richmond Hill, 148 in 20 overs over Canal No. 2 Polder, 64 in 20 overs and NY Challengers, 177 in 20 overs against East Side Warriors’ 66 in 20 overs.

Enmore Walks Over Opposition
Last Saturday, Enmore enjoyed a walk over from a bedraggled Unified Ambassadors, who may have simply quit before its season’s end. Enmore faced Golden Arrow last Sunday and came away with the win after bowling out the Sew Shivnarine led Golden Arrow squad for 137, and easily reaching the victory target at Idlewild Park, in Rosedale.

In its second match Enmore defeated Empire Mortgage at the same location. Empire Mortgage scored 164 in its 20 overs. However, it was not enough to defeat Enmore, a team that has done extremely well in its regular 40-overs season and leading up to the Big-4 championship. Enmore easily reached 165 and the victory, earning the right to meet Richmond Hill today in a semi-final and the right to meet Everest/ACS in the EACA’s inaugural Twenty/20 championship final at Idlewild Park, in Rosedale, tomorrow, should they get past a defiant Richmond Hill.
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