Eastern American Cricket Association Under-19 team with president Rudy Persaud (far left) and NYC Region representative to USACA Krish Prasad (far right).

TRI-STATE YOUTH CRICKET TOURNAMENT
Eastern American Youths Romp Over Connecticut Chargers

By John L. Aaron
Sept. 16th, 2008
They must have had a leprechaun amongst them, because the Eastern American Youths emerged champions of the Tri-State Youth Development’s 40-Overs tournament, having benefited from two previous no-shows by their opponents.

N. Patel Thakur Singh Zaid Majeed

Notwithstanding their genuine luck, Eastern American Youths came out to play the championship match and brought their “A” game with them against the team that featured one of the New York metropolitan area’s best Under-19 youths – Brian Ajodhi.

With Connecticut Charges taking first strike and posting a decent 147 for 9 in the agreed upon reduced 35 overs contested, primarily off the bats of their 7, 8 and 9 batsmen, Eastern American was glad to have had the scalp of Brian Ajodhi for a duck. Connecticut Chargers were off to a disastrous start losing their first four wickets for 24 runs, before surviving a fifth wicket stand of 26 and a sixth-wicket stand of 45, to pull it together somewhat.

It was N. Patel with a painstaking 45 (2x4s, 1x6), C. Singh, 30 (2x6s, 2x4s) and H. Smith, 17, who added some respectability to the Chargers total. It was H. Bridgpaul with figures of 7-3-26-4 and Z. Majeed 7-1-23-2 who carted off the scalps. The Connecticut Charges wickets fell at 5, 14, 18, 24, 50, 95, 114, 139 and 147. Extras contribution was 30.

Taking to the middle Easter American Youths, lost Toolsie for a deuce with the score on 32. Fellow opener and skipper Andy Mohamed then went for 17, before T. Singh, 45 (4x4s) and Z. Majeed, 40 (1x6, 5x4s), helped the team reach the required 148, effectively taking the match away from the Connecticut Chargers’ grasp.

Losing only six wickets along the way, Eastern American Youths had responded affirmatively to the many skeptics who thought the team was suspect, got an easy ride to the finals, and did not rightfully earn the spot the final. However, as the saying goes – a win is a win, and the Eastern American Youths had doggedly stayed in the race of the well-organized and managed 2008 youth program, a program that produced the victorious New York Regional national champions two weeks earlier.

Bowling for Connecticut Charges: H. Smith 2 for 27 off 6 overs and A. Imran 2 for 17 off 7 overs, led in the bowling department for the boys north of New York.

In spite of the final result, the Connecticut Charges gave account of themselves, while playing some very courageous cricket along the way. New York just happened to have a slight edge over their visitors, who never fully recovered after losing the prized wicket of the talented Brian Ajodhi.