CUK DE SAC—The Northwest Cricket Club from Texas, USA U15 cricketers won all four matches in the bilateral series against their St. Maarten counterparts last week.
On Friday, in the final match of the series, the visitors won by a convincing seven wickets at the Caribe Lumber Ballpark.
The home team won the toss for the first time and decided to bat. Captain Davenand Singh and Micheal Palmer added 91 for the first wicket off just 13.4 overs. But when Palmer fell for a blistering 56 off 43 balls (7x4, 2x6), the other middle-order batsmen crumbled spectacularly to 123 for seven.
No one kept company with Singh, who was batting sensibly to pull his team out of the hole. Finally, Jethan Edward showed a level of maturity to add 52 with Singh for the ninth wicket. Singh and Edward rotated the strike well by placing the ball into the gaps and hitting the bad balls into the boundary. Edward contributed 28 off 43 balls (1x4, 1x6).
After Edward was dismissed with the score of 175, three other wickets, including Singh, fell on that score. Captain Singh scored an impressive 63 off 103 balls (5x4). Six batsmen did not score a run in another poor batting display for the home team.
The bowling figures of the wicket takers for the winners were Parth Patel 6-0-28-5, Arnav Jhamb 6.3-0-25-2, Namish Gurram 3-1-6-1 and Shawn Jindal 5-0-24-1.
In response, the visitors showed a high level of maturity and plenty of Grey matter in pursuit of the total. They were very selective in which balls had to be hit or left alone.
Adnit Jhamb, the run machine for the Northwest team, hit a risk-free 67 off 80 balls (4x4). Pooja Ganesh, one of the two outstanding females in the Northwest Cricket Club, stroked a skilful 58 off 94 balls (4x4). She opened the batting for the first time in the series and batted right up to the 30th over.
Jhamb, who batted at fourth, stayed right to the end to see his team over the line. When Dhruvan Kiran (7 off 16) and Srihan Challa (6 off 8) fell inside the first power play, Ganesh and Jhamb combined for a match-winning third-wicket partnership of 114 runs. Again, the St. Maarten bowlers bowled good lines and lengths, but the opposition batsmen were patient and skilful to chip away smartly at the total. The wicket-takers were Israel Morton 8-1-29-1 and Singh 3-0-19-1.
The leading run scorer for the visitors was Adnit Jhamb, with 257 runs. The player with the most wickets was Sainavi Reddy Kambalapalli (female), with nine wickets, while the best fielder was Parth Patel.
The individual trophies for the home team went to Singh for the most runs, 95; Tyanick Honore for the most wickets, four and also the best fielder.
The management teams of both sides have already decided that the first week after school closes in December will be scheduled for the bilateral series
