Tranzac
Tranzac Cricket Club won a low scoring Mississauga Premier Cricket League Women’s Final against Ontario Cricket Academy (OCA) at Danville Park on Saturday, October 3, 2020. It was the first inter-club Women’s league to operate under the Mississauga Premier Cricket League banner.
The final began in distinctly cool conditions with mist hanging in the air. Tranzac won the toss, elected to field and were soon celebrating as the second over began with a run out followed by Kaimat Qazi bowling Nida Nafji and Terisha (Bess) Lavia with the next two balls. These dismissals set the tone for what turned into a low scoring game.
At 19/2 Tranzac seemed to be on course to overtake OCA’s 37 all out. But Terisha Lavia bowled Kaimat Qazi then trapped Sana Zafar and Hiba Shamshad lbw to dent Tranzac’s progress with a hattrick in the 6th over. Kamna Mirchandani seemed to be guiding Tranzac to victory but Rabbyjot Rajput grabbed two wickets with Tranzac on 36 in the 12th over before Tranzac celebrated the winning run in the 13th over. Kamna Mirchandani scored 10*, the highest tally with the bat on the day, and Tranzac, with 38/3 from 12.2 overs, won by 3 wickets.
2020 Regular Season Meetings
The finalists split the two league meetings, each winning once, and ended with records of 5 wins and 1 defeat in a four-team league. Tranzac topped the league standings due to a better net run rate (NRR), so OCA played and won a qualifier against Superstars Sports Club (Won 2, Lost 4) to reach the final. A Mississauga Cricket Premier League junior squad were the fourth team in the league this year. The team lost all 6 regular season games.
In the double-round robin league phase, Tranzac scored 116/4 (19.2 overs) in a loss to OCA 117/2 (17.4 overs) on August 22. Qasra’s Marukh Imtiaz scored 36 and Hiba Shamshad made 20* for Qasra while OCA’s Sunita Dinakar took 3/21 (3 overs). OCA opening bat Miryam Khokhar scored 40* and was joined in an unbroken third wicket stand of 113* by Terisha Lavia 58*. This stand followed early success for Tranzac’s Mandeep Dhaliwal took 2 wickets in the second over with just 4 runs scored by OCA.
On September 26 OCA scored 37/5 from 13 overs, Tranzac replied with a winning 38/1 from 7.5 overs. Opening bat Habeeba Bader lead the way with 14*.
Postscripts
In the 2019 season Tranzac and Ontario Cricket Academy had played in the women’s division of the Scarborough Cricket Association (SCA). Tranzac topped the round-robin phase but lost to Trinity Women’s Cricket- Canada in the final. In the 2019 SCA regular season: Tranzac Won 7, Lost2 , No Result 1, Trinity Women Won 7, Lost 2; Superstars Ladies Won 4, Lost 4, No Result 2; and OCA Won 0, Lost 9, No Result 1. In the 2019 SCA Women’s Final Tranzac women made 147/7 from 25 overs, Trinity Women’s Cricket – Canada replied with 148/7 from 24.3
overs to win by 3 wickets with 3 balls to spare.
I was happy to hear there were no reports of illness from either of the finalists in a recent follow- up with leaders from each club. In what has, so far, proved to be an unusual year good health may be even more important than winning a particular game. Good health brings the prospect of improving on your game next season and in future seasons.
There remains a need to inject interest and final support for women’s cricket in what is supposed to be the heartland of Ontario cricket. Some schools in the Greater Toronto Area have indoor and/or outdoor cricket for female teams – except in this pandemic year – but there is limited support from the cricket community. There are players with potential but they need to play regularly in an atmosphere geared towards raising the standards of play if Canada is to have any chance internationally.
It seems an eternity since the first Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) Women’s touring team played in Canada and the USA on their first tour of North America. A quick check indicates “an eternity” stretches back to September 2016.
Eddie Norfolk, Toronto, Ontario, October 29, 2020.