Cosmos Edged Staten Island

May 16th, 2008
(Celebrating 26 Anniversary)- It was a 'hot' thriller between Cosmos and Staten Island on a cold, windy, and grey Mother's Day at Floyd Bennett in Brooklyn. Why cricketers do the things they do just to play cricket in New York is sometimes beyond comprehension and is perhaps worthy of a cricket Oscar for bravery and love for the game.

Cosmos pacer Sham Ali

The fingers were numb, faces pale, watery eyes, and layers upon layers of clothing, well lets see- two tee-shirts, a long sleeve sweat shirt, a tract suit top, a long sleeve cricket shirt and cricket sweater - were not enough to prevent the a brisk wind from penetrating onto the body. It was uncomfortable day for cricket.

To make matters worst, the match lasted three balls short of eighty overs. Staten froze Cosmos for 40 overs and Cosmos in reply was just a little more sympathetic, they ended their inning with three balls less on the winning side. Staten Island top order batsmen applied themselves well with an excellent third wicket partnership of 120 runs between Ruchira Jayasuria (79) and Upali Kodituwakhu (43) which laid the foundation for their team to post big total.

However, when occasional medium pacer Shafiq Jadavji (4 for 45) affected the breakthrough, albeit to two brilliant catches from Imran Mohamed and F. Asif, Cosmos ceased the opportunity to fight themselves back into the match. The runs dried up suddenly, only Charu Chaudary (15) and Prashant Nandavannam (14) managed to get into double figures. Staten Island still managed to post a good total of 196 on a crumbling pitch. Sham Ali took 2 for 34 and Ricky Kissoon 2 for 26.

Cosmos in reply suffered an early set back when Lakeram Lakshman fail to fire, however, Cosmos batsmen would partnership their way to the end. Shafeek Shah and Iran Mohamed (12) added some stability to cosmos inning taking the score to 50 for the second wicket. Shafiq Jadavji and Shah added another important third wicket partnership of 51 before Shah (42) lost his leg stump, soon after Jadavji (32) suffered a dubious lbw decision, which shifted the match into a balance.

Cosmos had a tinge of concern in their camp with the score on 110 for 4, however, Sham Ali and Wayne Stuger played the experience role picking the gaps regularly and converting the occasional twos to feature in a crucial fifth wicket partnership of 67 runs. When Stuger (28) was run out, Cosmos was well within 19 runs of their target. The reliable Ricky Kissoon (14 n.o) unleashed a few aggressive drives to take Cosmos to within two runs of victory.

Sham (48 n.o.) then cracked the third ball of the 40th over to the point boundary to secure an important five-wicket victory.

Cosmos will play River Valley next Sunday at Poughkeepsie. Cosmos Kings will play Commonwealth at Floyd Bennett on Saturday.

WALLPAPERS