After ruling the roost in the Ontario Masters Softball Cricket Club’s (OMSCC) Over-50 Division for the past five years, defending champions Toronto Blizzards reign came to a screeching end at the Ashtonbee Reservoir ground, Scarborough, Canada last Saturday.
Billed as a showdown between the numbers one and two teams in the division, the game lived up to expectations, with new winners Pegasus Storm holding their nerve to come out victorious with four balls to spare in the nail-biting finish.
Set 164 for victory after Toronto Blizzards reached a challenging 163 for six from their allotted 20 overs, Pegasus `stormed’ to 165 for three in 19.2 overs, sparking wild celebrations among their players and supporters. The new winners suffered an immediate setback in the second over when their captain and leading batsman, Troy Gobin, was brilliantly taken at long-on by Abdool Azzeez off the wily Jesh Parasnauth for one and the scoreboard reading one for one.
Gobin’s dismissal set the stage for a fine second-wicket partnership between Ken Itwaru and Jito Narine, both playing cautiously before delighting the Saturday afternoon spectators with some delightful strokes in their 76-run partnership in just eight overs. By the time, Narine departed for 48, which included three fours and four sixes, the game was still interestingly poised at 77 for one in the 10th over.
Itwaru then found another useful ally in the experienced Ramo Malone, the two upping the tempo in their third-wicket stand of 57 in 5.4 overs before Itwaru’s exquisite knock of 57 came to an end, caught by Desmond Chumney off Lalchand Shivraj, an innings laced with five fours and two sixes, including three consecutive boundaries off his nephew Parasnauth.
Malone (32 not out) and Ian “Russian” Baldeo (10 not out) put the finishing touches to the game, the latter with a towering six off Azeez. Malone’s matured knock contained two fours and an equal number of sixes. Shivraj took one for 26 and Parasnauth one for 24.
Earlier, Fazil Rasool was in a non-nonsense mood, bludgeoning an unbeaten 40 with six huge sixes off a mere 16 balls after the earlier batsmen, including skipper Sunil Dhaniram (23) were kept somewhat in check by fine bowling from the Pegasus Storm bowlers.
The left-handed Rasool, who batted at number six, brought some respectability to the score. Chumney, with five sixes in his 32 and Mohan Harihar (22) were also among the runs. Gobin (two for 18) and Malone (two for 29) were the main wicket-takers for Pegasus Storm.
Apart from carting off the winning trophy, sponsored by Trophy Stall (Canada), members of the winning team were also the recipient of medals. Toronto Blizzards took away the runners-up trophy and medals for all of their players. They were also the regular season champs.
The Most Valuable Players went to Itwaru (Pegasus Storm) and Rasool (Toronto Blizzards).
Dhaniram claimed the lion’s share of the individual trophies – scoring the most runs (494), the division’s highest batting ranking and for scoring a century in the regular season. Centuries were also recorded by Gobin (108), Shiv Seeram (121), Monty Dass (103), Khemraj Budhai (116) and Kenny Girdharry (102). Rasool claimed the most wickets (10) while Jaimini Singh got two four-wicket hauls and Sohan Singh had one.
