CU WINS AGAINST WINDY CITY AND CYCA. CHARGERS WIN AGAINST REDS

Anirudh J 82 (75), Dhruv D 70* (40) Venkatesh N 54* (44) Abdul Kareem 3 wickets (CASO and UCL). Crucial performances: Neil S (16* in 14 balls, 6-0-21-1) and Samiuddin M (10* in 7 balls) Najam Iqbal (6-3-25-2)

At CASO: CYCA Underdogs vs Chicago United: Winner Chicago United by 9 wickets Winning the toss CYCA chose to bat first against the mighty Chicago United. It was a good showcase of temperament and techniques from the youths against the experienced bowling attack of Chicago United. Anshul and Shounak got CYCA to a steady start before Anshul got out to Deepak Paulswamy. Kevin Philip showed his batting skills against some serious pace attack from Koti Venga and Nadeem Williams. CYCA couldn’t keep the runs coming after Kevin got out to the leg spinner Sachin Veerasammy. CYCA was bundled out for 135 runs in 30 overs by the CU bowlers. Abdul Kareem (Kaxim Kareem) picked up 3 wickets and Sumukha Kp picked 2 wickets while Sachin, Nadeem and Deepak picked 1 wicket each. CU opened the batting with Anirudh Jonnavitula and Venkatesh Naidu to chase down 136. Shounak Sawant from CYCA impressed everyone with his bowling skills while Venky played a well-built innings with some good pulls and drives to score 54 of 44 balls. On the other end Dhruv Duggal scored an unbeaten 70 with some clean hits. Venkatesh Naidu and Dhruv led CU to a comfortable win chasing 136 runs in 15 overs.

At UCL: Chicago Reds vs Deccan Chargers: Winner Deccan Chargers by 1 wicket. CU Reds (powered by Chicago United) won the toss and elected to bat first. The opening spell from Deccan Chargers got rid of the top 4 batsmen for CU Reds with less than 10 runs. Getting off a shaky start Abdul Kareem steadied the ship with a good knock of 39(41) along with the experienced batting of Akhil Khan Pathan 18(20). Deccan Chargers broke the partnership by picking both the wickets with the score reading 84-6 in the 14th over. Ragunathan Saminathan played a valiant knock amidst picking up an injury while batting to score 23(17) with two towering maximums. CU Reds finished with a below par score of 126 in the allotted 20 overs. Asif (4-0-14-3) and Ahmed Shaikh (4-0-24-2) were the pick of the bowlers for Deccan Chargers. Deccan Chargers got off to a good start before Akhil Pathan picked up two early wickets. At the 10th over Deccan Chargers were going at a steady rate with the score reading 87-4. With only 40 runs required in 10 overs with 6 wickets in the bag Deccan Chargers had the game in their hands. Srivatsa Murthy (4-0-18-3) bowled a brilliant spell to pull the game back towards the Reds. CU Reds made Deccan Chargers lower order batsmen work hard for every run before some crucial catches were put down in the end to see them reach the target in the 19th over with just 1 wicket to spare. CU Reds went down fighting with Kareem Mohammad (4-0-28-3) and Akhil Pathan (4-0-25-2) being the pick of the bowlers along with Srivatsa Murthy. Khaled Mohammad 43(21) was the pick of the batsman for Deccan.

At ACC: Chicago United vs Windy City: Winner Chicago United by 1 wicket. Windy city won the toss and elected to bat first. The opening bowlers Najam Iqbal and Nadeem William bowled brilliantly with the first 5 overs going for just 4 runs and Najam Iqbal getting the first breakthrough. Najam was unplayable in the first three overs he bowled which turned out to be maiden overs. Ahsan Ahmed played well to get a decent score of 29(35) balls before playing a lofted shot towards deep midwicket which was brilliantly held by Koti Vanga off the bowling of Neil Shah (6-0-21-1) who spun the web around the Windy city batsmen along with Najam Iqbal (6-3-25-2) and Sachin Veeraswamy (4-0-16-1). Mir Ali 77(91)* played a brilliant knock right from the beginning of the innings till the very end and built his innings slowly but steadily along with Ali Agha 22(25) and Shaheer Hassan 17(14) to take windy city to a very good score of 183 with the loss of 5 wickets.

Chicago United had early setbacks during the chase with the loss of two quick wickets within the powerplay. At the end of the 10th over Chicago United were 50 for the loss of 3 wickets which quickly became 60 for 5 at the end of 14 overs. Anirudh stuck around and was composed with runs being hard to get and wickets falling at the other end. A change in the batting order which turned out to be a brilliant move by captain Hasan Bemat saw Nadeem Williams promoted up the order and he scored a quickfire 27 of 21 balls which helped Chicago United maintain their required run rate. Anirudh was impressive in his stroke play which was a delight for the spectators watching the game milking singles and doubles and took on the Windy City bowlers at the right moment. As wickets kept falling at the other end and the score was 153-8 at the 25th over mark the game was poised to be a thriller with Windy city requiring two wickets to win and Chicago United needed 31 runs of 30 balls. The game was still in the hands of Chicago United with Anirudh 82(75) playing a valiant innings taking the team close to victory but his innings ended when he sliced a well bowled yorker from Talha Mohsin to point. The game seemed to be in the hands of Windy city with 16 runs still needed with one wicket left. Neil Shah and Mohammed Samiuddin had to play sensibly to pull off a victory. Neil Shah 16(14)* scored two crucial boundaries which helped Chicago inch closer to victory. In the final over Chicago United required 5 runs and Samiuddin 10(7)* scored a boundary off the first ball of the over to level the scores and the game ended with a wide delivery leaving Windy City and the spectators in awe as Chicago United pulled off a thriller which went all the way down to the wire. Notable bowling performances for windy city were Daniyal Rashid (6-0-28-2) , Amyn Gillani (6-1-38-2) and Talha Mohsin (6-0-32-2).#PlayCricket, #ChicagoUnited#ChicagoCricket#USAcricket