Dhaniram’s batting masterclass, Dhanpaul’s miserly bowling hand Bachan consecutive wins

New York Cricket League…

Zeeburg Cricket Club’s Yutesh Avi Dhanpaul, currently engaged abroad in the Commonwealth League (CL) and the New York Cricket League (NYCL), has, over the weekend, added to his list of sterling performances by returning miserly bowling figures of 2-26 for his club, the Bachan Cricket Club, in a 30-over affair against a dangerous Punjab 11 Cricket Team.

The youngster’s efforts were however overshadowed by the exceptional batting exploits of a former first class all-rounder, 52-year-old Guyanese Sudesh Dhaniram, who played a classy half-century to take his side — Bachan — over the proverbial line.
Dhaniram and Dhanpaul have of late both been in tremendous form with bat and ball.
Punjab 11 won the toss, and elected to bat in slightly overcast conditions, fully knowing that these same conditions place the team batting second at a disadvantage.
Their openers, Asif Mushtaq and Atif Mushtaq, never got going, thus placing pressure on the other batsmen. Luck, however, had deserted the Punjab 11 side, and they soon found themselves moving from 27-1 to 54-4.

With the Punjab innings needing rejuvenation, Ricky Singh stuck around and managed to play an unbeaten 39-ball 44, which included three boundaries and one maximum. Unfortunately, he received no support from his team mates, and at 85-8, Punjab found themselves in a grim battle to post a respectable total. Tail-ender Abdul Basit, however, played a superb knock of 36, which included four maximums and one boundary, to take his side to 155-8 in their allotted 30 overs.
Bowling for Bachan, Adand ‘Curry’ Deodat took 3-20, Yutesh Dhanpaul took 2-26; and Mark Tyrell, Beejai Somai and Subhas Persaud each bagged a wicket.
Needing a simple total of 156 to win the encounter, Bachan were put under pressure in coming up against the weather factor. Things took a turn for the worse when Bachan lost the in-form Dhanpaul for a patient 15 early in the innings; but the experienced Sudesh Dhaniram, ably supported by Steven Ramoutar, who played a patient knock of 20, gave his side a fighting chance with an unbeaten 67, made off 45 balls, to take his team to 108-1 at the end of 16 overs. Thus when rain stopped play, Bachan were declared winners of this match because of their superior net run rate.
The only Punjab bowler to take a wicket was Ricky Singh, with 1-22.