ACC Spring Break Championship Day 1: Thunderbird and Auburn win T20 games on run rate

By Peter Della Penna

Thunderbird
School of Global Management (T-birds) secured a win over USC on
Wednesday in the first match of the 2010 American College Cricket
Spring Break Championship on the artificial wickets outside the stadium
at Central Broward Regional Park in Lauderhill, Fla. Auburn also
notched a victory in a rain-interrupted match over George Washington.

“Right now, I think people are pumped up,” said T-birds captain Sudeep
Misra after his team’s victory. “We’re gonna win every single match
we’re gonna play.”

USC won the toss and elected to bat first in overcast and wet
conditions getting off to a very strong start but the T-birds fought
back with wickets in the middle overs to restrict the Trojan batting
lineup. USC was still hopeful of posting around 140 but due to the
nature of the tournament rules, which do not follow ICC guidelines,
they were not able to make a final push as their innings was called
after 18 overs and they finished on 115 for 8.

“They had a fantastic start so we were thinking of wrapping them up
within 125 or something and we were partly successful,” said Misra. “We
got them for 115 runs. But at the same time, when they started they
were getting some boundaries because there was some sloppy fielding I
would say from outside and the ball was swinging a lot. It was
different than our conditions back in Arizona. It’s way too dry. It
doesn’t swing at all and right here it was overcast and the ball will
swing so it was difficult for the bowlers to control it.”

According to the tournament rules, each innings can not take longer
than 80 minutes, regardless of injury stoppages or stalling by the team
in the field. The umpires initially were going to let USC bat 20 overs
and then penalize T-birds for bowling at a slow over rate, but the
tournament organizers intervened to make sure that the official rules
for the tournament were being applied. As a result, USC’s plan to hit
out in the final few overs was negated and they finished on 115 for 8
in 18.

“The last momentum, the last push we usually give towards the end of
the innings, we couldn’t give that because our batsmen weren’t aware,”
said Tarun Sandhu, USC vice-captain. “They were playing thinking about
playing 20 overs and suddenly in the 17th over [the umpires] go in and
they’re like, ‘Okay guys, this is the last over.’”

Initially, it was decided by the umpires that Thunderbird would have 18
overs to score 116, but then this was changed to 116 off 17 overs after
a decision was made that T-birds should be penalized for bowling slow
in the field.

“They told us that these guys have batted for 18 overs so let’s make it
a fair game, you’ll also get to bat 18 overs,” said Misra. “Actually,
he told us 17 overs, bat for 17 overs, that was one over deduction for
us… that was a punishment for us.”

USC got off to a fantastic start in the field as Sandhu’s pace claimed
two wickets in the first over, including one on the first ball of the
innings, to put T-birds in a big hole. However, number four batsman
Nimish Jalan dug in at the crease and dug his team out of trouble with
a very solid 49 to top score for T-birds.

“I just wanted to stay in the crease and ensure that I see through the
first six overs and see the new ball and that was the plan,” said Jalan.
 
T-birds were 99 for 6 in 15 overs, needing 17 to win with two overs
remaining, when the match was called after 80 minutes of time had
elapsed for the second innings. According to the tournament rules, the
winner in this situation is decided on net run rate, not
Duckworth/Lewis Method.

More confusion resulted as USC should have won based on a run rate
calculation for chasing the runs in 17 overs (6.82 per over, 102 par)
while T-birds would win based on an 18 over calculation (6.44 per over,
97 par). Eventually, T-birds were declared the winner.

USC was left smarting after having both innings curtailed to their
detriment!  “We were just expecting standard rules,” said USC captain
Tarun Tyagi.

“This is the first time that we’ve had a game cut short,” said Sandhu.
“In the entire history that we’ve been playing, we’ve never faced this
kind of situation. We always play our 20 overs and that’s how we plan
it out. If you look at it, our main bowlers, they still had on over up
their sleeve because we were waiting to use them right at the death.
But saying that, I would still give all credit [to T-birds]. I think
they batted well. Whatever the conditions I think their batsmen, a
couple of those guys got stuck in and they played really well.”

After seeing how their first match turned out, USC sees an open door
for teams to manipulate the over rates to work in their favor and
believes other teams will follow suit.

“The teams who were watching the game today, they will certainly react
to the situation,” said Sandhu. “Basically, the way to interpret these
rules is that if your team is doing well, you slow the game down. You
slow it down because you already have the advantage and then the other
team gets under pressure because they have to perform at the same rate.”

In the second match of the day, Auburn blitzed the George Washington
bowlers and capitalized on some poor fielding to run up 141 for 1 in 15
overs before time was called on their innings. In reply, GWU was 35 for
3 in 7.1 overs when the umpires took the players off the field as the
showers at the ground became stronger and fielding became dangerous.
Under the tournament rules, the match becomes official if at least six
overs are completed so Auburn was declared the winner, way ahead on net
run rate. Auburn captain Naveen Thiagarajan opened the innings and
top-scored with 49 not out.

The other three games on Wednesday, College of Wooster vs. Minnesota,
University of West Indies vs. South Florida, and University of Miami
vs. Thunderbird, were washed out.

Eleven matches are scheduled for Thursday to be split between Central
Broward Regional Park’s artificial wicket fields and the artificial and
natural turf wickets at Brian Piccolo Park in nearby Cooper City. York
College and University of Pennsylvania are scheduled to play the
morning match on the natural turf wicket at Brian Piccolo Park while
USC will face University of Miami (Fla.) in the afternoon contest.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 18th, 2010 at 8:51 am and is filed under Cricket Live Streaming, World Cricket League. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.