Ravin Ivan Slams First Century Of The Mini World Cup

By Sunil Pahalad
Sept. 25th, 2008
One week after winning their first championship in New York Softball Cricket League, the United Stars Cricket Club continues to dominate division 1A. The captain Bobby Pahalad won the toss and his team decided to bat against a team that is new to this level of cricket.

Ravin Ivan

The New York cricket XI is comprised of hardball players with only a few of them having some sort of experience in softball cricket and playing against a team with such talent as United Stars, they were really in for a challenge. United Stars made a few changes to their batting line-up because the mini-world cup is considered to be the 20/20 competition of softball cricket so of course a more attacking batting line is needed. The stroke playing right handed, Ravin Ivan and the attacking lefthander, Ravi Balli was sent to the crease to open the batting.

In the first over of the game, United Stars found themselves in some early trouble with Balli caught behind without scoring, followed by Vicky “Bolo” Dhanraj in the second over for one, C. Ramdhanny in the third over for one and Krishna Singh for four in the fifth over. Ivan was then joined by skipper Bobby Pahalad who seems to be getting in the habit of picking up the pieces when his team is in trouble. With 4 wickets gone for a mere 42 runs, Bobby and Ivan started smashing the ball to all parts of the park scoring at a fast pace. They both continued confidently to the 10th over taking the score to 85 runs.

United Stars

The first over after the break, Bobby continued to display his aggressive batting skills, scoring 25 runs off the over. He added another half century to his name before being caught on the midwicket boundary for 57 runs off the bowling of Derek Edwin. Ivan and Bobby added a massive partnership of 107 runs to help their team recover from an early batting collapse.

The experienced Vijay Seenarine joined Ivan at the crease to help push the score further and he did so batting sensible rotating the strike to Ivan giving him a better chance to make his century. Ivan faced the first and last ball of the game finishing on 101 not out. His hundred was filled with shots to all parts of the ground, but the best was the square cut shot for six. United Stars completed their allotted 20 overs tallying a massive total of 191 runs for 5 wickets with 27 extras being the third highest score of the game.

For the New York Cricket XI, Tani Mohamed was the most successful and economical bowler grabbing 2 wickets for 15 runs in his 4 overs. He was well supported by R. Kistoo and Derek Edwin who both bowled their 4 overs for 29 and 28 runs respectively grabbing 1 wicket each.

When United Stars took the field it was clearly to dominate the New York Cricket XI by out playing them in all aspects of the game. They wrapped up the innings in 9.4 overs with New York XI managing only 27 runs. Extras were the top score for the opposition which was 8 runs.

This small total was orchestrated by line and length bowling by Bhola Pahalad and Jai Sanichar. Bhola opened the bowling picking up wickets in every over he bowled in his spell. He finished with figures of 4 overs, 2 maidens, 5 runs and 5 wickets, well supported by Jai Sanichar with 4 overs, 1 maiden, 9 runs, 2 wickets, Bobby Pahalad with 1 over, 3 runs, 1 wicket and Johnny Sookraj, 0.4 overs, no runs and 1 wicket.