New York Is National Under-19 Champions
Gregory Sewdial Tournament MVP

By John L. Aaron
Gregory Sewdial powered the New York Regional under-19 squad to the 2007 USA national Under-19 championship, just completed at the Brian Piccolo Park, Cooper City, Florida. New York retained national honors after a very disappointing loss last year. The jubilant squad accompanied by manager Lester Hooper and coach Linden Fraser were expected back in New York later this evening (Monday, October 8).

The very talented all-rounder Gregory Sewdial was awarded the tournament’s MVP for his contributions of 62 not out in the semi-final match on Saturday against the Northwest Regional XI, 69 against the Southwest Regional XI in the rain-affected finals yesterday, and claiming 3 wickets for 19 runs in the championship final.

Saturday, October 6, 2007
New York vs. Northwest
Northwest won the toss and elected to take first strike, resulting in 182 all out after 47.1 overs.

Northwest top scorers were Sidique Salema, 46; Vinny Singh, 29; A. Saad, 22 and S. Sadib, 20. New York conceded 34 extras, including 21 wides.

Bowling for New York: Alexandrino Kirton: 4.1-0-7-3, Azurdeen Mohammed: 10-2-28-2, Umer Faroouq: 10-0-34-1, Javien Thomas: 7-0-30-1. There were two run outs.

New York in reply reached 183 and the victory, for the loss of only two wickets. Gregory Sewdial, 62 (2x6s, 4x4s) not out, Basdeo Ramnarain retired hurt 47, Akeem Dodson, 34 not out, and Francis Mendonca, 17. There were 22 extras.

S. Salim was responsible for the only wicket with figures of 10-0-31-1. Thus New York advanced to reach the Southwest Region in yesterday’s finals.

Southwest Region vs. Southeast
Saturday, the Southwest Region scoring 189 defeated the Southeast Region, who scored only 150 in reply.

Sunday, October 7, 2007
Championship Final
New York vs. Southwest
New York Region batting first reached 198 all out in 41.2 overs, with Gregory Sewdial, 69, Basdeo Ramnarain, 26, and Akeem Dodson, 25. There were 33 extras.

Bowling for Southwest Region: Sandhu: 7.2-0-31-4, Deval: 6-0-32-2, Hammad: 3-0-23-1 and Katagoda: 8-3-31-1.

Southwest Region’s reply was affected by a half-hour rain delay that saw the Duckworth-Lewis formula being enforced. Eight overs were deducted, offering the Southwest Region 42 overs in which to score 167 runs. However, that was far too many overs needed by New York, who behind some very stingy bowling from Alexandrino Kirton and MVP Gregory Sewdial restricted the Southwest Region to 106 all out in 36.4 overs.

SCORECARDS
Batting: New York Region
Basdeo Ramnarain - ret. hurt. - - 47
Francis Mendonca - c. Wktpr. B. Salim - 17
Azzurdeen Mohammed - run out 01
Gregory Sewdial - not out - - 62
Akeem Dodson - not out - - 34
Extras: 22
Total: 183 for 2 in 42.5 overs
Bowling for Southwest: S. Salim: 10-0-37-1

Battign: Southwest Region
Yuvraj Sharma - b. Kirton - - 18
Siddhnauth Dhume - c. Mendonca b. Kirton 04
Ali Mukkadan - lbw. Kirton - - 03
Ravi Timbawala - c. Mendonca b. Kirton 11
Dineth Katagoda - c. Kirton b. Sewdial 19
Mathew Hivnar - stmp. Wktpr b. Kirton 00
Panphal Deval - lbw. Thomas - 08
Ryan Amaratunga - c. Kirton b. Sewdial 14
Panchal Dhaval - c. Thomas b. Sewdial 05
Shahid Hammad - not out - - 07
Gurpreet Sandhu - b. Faroouq - - 01
Extras: 16
Total: 106 All out 36.4 overs
Bowlign for New York: A. Kirton: 9-3-9-4, G. Sewdial: 4-0-19-3, J. Thomas: 5-0-15-1, D. Hurley: 5-1-20-1, U. Faroouq: 8.4-1-25-1, A. Mohammed: 5-0-14-0

From all appearances New York, the team to beat at the tournament was determined to come away champions, and so they did, defeating their opponents in convincing fashion.

Gregory Sewdial came away with the Best Batting Performance award, in addition to the MVP award. Alexandrino “Rusty” Kirton copped the Best Bowling Performance award for his combined tournament figures of 7 wickets for 16 runs.

In the third-place consolation spot the Southeast Region defeated the Northwest Region by two wickets, having restricted Northwest to 146 runs.

All of the tournament participants received a medal. However, in a very disappointing presentation ceremony at the conclusion of the championships, there were no actual trophies presented for the championship winners or runne-up, although the best performance and MVP awards were represented by trophies, albeit disappointingly small for the effort and hard work put in by a bunch of dedicated players.

The youth cricketers attach significance to the rewarding of outstanding performances with hardware received; anything less than indicative of the effort is not very encouraging.
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