Under cloudy skies and windy conditions, Emery Collegiate went into the Final with a tied series 1-1. They won their second game under some difficult conditions, with the temperature reading at 8 Celsius with the sun poking out; Emery convincingly beat the Combined Universities by 3 wickets.

Yesterday, May 1st promised a balmy 18 degrees but fell well short of that with little to no sun. It was a bit chilly, but as a close family friend said, “this is still Canada…” Combined Universities batting first struggled to make a start from very tight bowling by the duo of Riday “Bangla Babu” Sarkar and Karan Bhatti. Continuing their accuracy and keeping the extras down, Emery restricted the Universities to only 37, all out. Universities’ Nasib Gupta was the only batsman to get into double figures, scoring 11. Hummad Khan bowled an excellent tournament to gain the trophy for the most wickets.

Cricket, the game of glorious uncertainties, certainly lived up to that assessment when chasing 38 runs proved to be a daunting task for the Emery batsmen. Captain Sahil Kesar was determined to take the shield and gave a fight to death effort. With pinpoint accuracy tournament MVP Michael Walton kept the runs down in the early overs and managed to shatter the stumps of opener Karan Bhatti before any stand could develop. His brother, proved to be just as accurate with his spin and use of flight, removing the stumps Japjeet Singh and Afaq Ansari. Not to be outdone by his younger brother, Patrick’s aggressive out fielding style caught him the tournament’s Best Fielding award. His batting contribution towards the overall Universities’ effort also garnered the Batting trophy. Unfortunately, due to tight and intelligent fielding, Emery could only muster 37 runs to tie the game….

With the series poised, the match went to the Super Over. The order of the day seemed to be Yorker length balls, at least for Emery’s “Bangla Babu” Set 3 runs to win by the batting of Karan Bhatti and Afaq Ansari, “Bangla Babu” held off the Universities effort. Combined with the stunning run out of Michael Walton, Bangla Babu maintained his length and secured a victory for Emery.

The entire series was played in good spirits and both Captains were gracious in defeat and victory. All of the players came from countries where Cricket is King and without any doubt showed that though they faced uphill battles managed to come through in the end. Many of the Emery boys do not have proper uniforms or ever had the privilege of formalized coaching. There was no lack of enthusiasm and effort on their part. They come from grades 9 to 12, embarking on a journey to higher education. By mixing them with successful university students, I am hoping that the Emery boys will have some inspiration to reach a higher personal target. They played against Engineering, Accounting, Business Studies and Sciences undergrads. Hopefully, the same spirit of determination will also see these young hopefuls into undergraduates and in time, maybe a few will pursue higher callings.

My thanks goes out to Principal Icilda Ellliston, Hall Monitor Parrvaiz (Guddu) Singh and Teacher Uriel McDonald. Without their help this tournament could not have happened. A special thanks goes to my colleague, Officer Melwin Gonsalves for his scorekeeping and logistical help.

A small word to the readers of canadacricket.com, as a country we struggle with maintaining ODI status. Achieving Test designation is as elusive as the proverbial grapes but we can make sure that our kids at every level get the opportunity to play Cricket. There are enough volunteers out there who know the game well enough to help out in the effort. Wherever you are, please make a small effort to help, in whatever manner you can. In the end, you are helping to make memories.

Keep playing with a straight bat.

Colin Mohammed.
SRO-Emery Collegiate
Toronto Police Service.