East Coast CC
From the Nova Scotia Cricket Association Facebook page:-
Congratulations to East Coast Cricket Club – ECCC on winning the 2019 Deonarine Cup, going through the tournament undefeated to be deserving winners.
The tone was set in the weekend’s first game, with Nova Scotia Avengers Cricket Club defeating Halifax Cricket Club by 7 runs in the first of many close finishes. Muneeb Ahmedani starred with bat and ball as Avengers set a healthy target of 8/157, Vishal Menon the best of Halifax CC’s bowlers. Halifax CC were always close in the chase but Avengers kept taking wickets at crucial moments to stay ahead and start their Deo Cup with a win.
NS Avengers CC 8/157 off 20 (Muneeb Ahmedani 53, Danish Khan 31, Vishal Menon 4/33) defeated Halifax CC 7/150 off 20 (Abraham Somavarapha 37, Sagar Mandhan 29, Muneeb Ahmedani 3/14, Zubair Khan 3/20) by 7 runs
Halifax CC were then to back up against Halifax Titans Cricket Club. Halifax CC batting first never got going after the loss of early wickets, with only Matt Lee providing any resistance in the face of a very good team bowling effort led by Kiran Kumar Ageteela. In reply, Titans batting line-up came out aggressive with all players getting starts, and they passed the target with 6 wickets and 34 balls to spare.
Hfx-Titans CC 4/112 of 14.2 (Sagar Mandhan 2/20) defeated Halifax CC 111 all out of 19.4 (Matt Lee 40, Kiran Kumar Ageteela 3/26, Sri Koushik Kanuri 2/22) by 6 wickets
Day 1 wrapped up with East Coast CC making their first appearance in the tournament against the Avengers. Avengers couldn’t maintain their batting form, dismissed for 110 in only 17 overs, with skipper Tushar Sehgal claiming 3 wickets and the spinners bowling very tightly. In reply, the chase of the low total proved difficult as Avengers fought very hard in the field, but Daksh Talwar would guide East Coast home with 4 wickets and 2 balls to spare.
East Coast CC 6/114 of 19.4 (Daksh Talwar 26*, Adnan Rao 2/17, Harsith Reddy 2/22) defeated NS Avengers CC 110 all out off 17 (Danish Khan 32, Tushar Sehgal 3/22, Amit Joshi 2/3, Daksh Talwar 2/11, Arun Nag 2/20) by 4 wickets
Day 2 and we were again blessed with sunny conditions, as the 2 remaining undefeated teams clashed to start. East Coast batted first and strong middle order contributions led by Arun Nag guided them to 6/148 off 20. Titans strong batting lineup was never able to get ahead of the run rate as the ECCC spinners again kept things very tight in the middle overs, resulting in a 10 run win to East Coast CC as they jumped to the top of the standings.
East Coast CC 6/148 of 20 (Arun Nag 49, Priyank Shah 30, Nandu Vishnu 2/22) defeated Hfx-Titans CC 5/138 off 20 (Anil Kumar Banoth 38, Amit Joshi 2/21) by 10 runs.
Titans rebounded strongly form their narrow loss posting 8/152 in the following game against Avengers, with Dinesh Gaddam finding his top form with 58, as Muneeb Ahmedani again took wickets at the death along with Pourush Chowdhary. Avengers slipped to 6/73 in reply but some stunning late hitting from Pourush and Mohit Kumar M-k brought Avengers to within 5 runs of the target, falling just short.
Hfx-Titans CC 8/152 off 20 (Dinesh Gaddam 58, Pourush Chowdhary 3/19, Muneeb Ahmedani 3/21) defeated NS Avengers CC 8/147 off 20 (Pourush Chowdhary 38, Mohit Kumar 28*, Sarferoze Shaik 3/8, Nandu Vishnu 2/34) by 5 runs.
So as always, the tournament came down to the last game, with East Coast needing to win to claim the trophy, as a loss to Halifax CC would see Titans win the cup on NRR. East Coast batted first and posted an imposing 7/172, with Konark Bararia smashing 81 from the top, with assistance from Amit Joshi and Arun Nag. Veer Singh dominated Halifax CC’s chase batting through the innings to finish 89* in a great display of batting, but again ECCC’s spinners tied the scoring down at the other end, restricting Halifax CC to 3/144 off 20 to claim the Deo Cup with a perfect 3-0 record.
East Coast CC (7/172 off 20 (Konark Bararia 81, Amit Joshi 31, Arun Nag 28, Sunny Patel 3/37, Sagar Mandhan 2/30) defeated Halifax CC 3/144 off 20 (Veer Singh 89*, Rakshith Shetty 26*, Arun Nag 2/20) by 28 runs.
A great weekend of cricket played in warm sunny weather with the ground in fantastic early season condition, which is evident with the high scores. A big shout out to Kisshore Rajasankar and the other umpires who kept games running on time and in good spirit, and to all the clubs for putting on a great display of cricket.
We were honoured to be joined by the family of Bhan Deonarine, former NSCA president Arun Mehra, and Jahnu Baruah from our sponsors Citco for the presentation ceremony. Arun Nag was awarded the Citco Player of the Tournament award for his consistent performances with bat, ball and in the field that contributed to East Coast’s win, and then East Coast skipper Tushar Sehgal was presented with the Deonarine Cup.