Sheridan College captured the Canadian College Cricket’s National Universities and Colleges Championship last Friday (August 26, 2016) at Maple Leaf Cricket Club, King City, Ontario. Sheridan College qualified for Friday’s playoffs with a record of 3 wins and 1 loss in round-robin action. Sheridan then beat Centennial College by 27 runs in a semi-final and followed with a 58 run win against York University in the Final.
Sheridan had scored 125/9 from 20 overs then bowled out Centennial College for 98 (19.1 overs) in one semi-final, to win by 2 runs. York University had batted first in the other semi-final against the University of Toronto. York scored 41/7 (20 overs) and bowled out University of Toronto for 123 (19 overs).
An opening stand of 61 from 8.4 overs by Priyank Chohan (42) and Sabes Rasanayagem (31) gave Sheridan College a good start against Centennial College in the semi-final. There would have been hopes of a higher total than 125/9 (20 overs) but Centennial bowlers Anand Erramilli, Hassan Javaid and Yug Rao each took two wickets. The bowlers had support from wicketkeeper Mohit Rohura who took three catches and made one stumping. Hardik Patel, batting fifth, made the only score of note in Centennial’s 98 all out (19.1 overs) with 35*. Sheridan off-spinner Harsh Thaker, a Canadian U19 international, took 3/14 from 4 overs and Shubham Gogna took 2/22 from 4 overs.
Three batsmen made individual 20’s York University’s 141/7 from 20 overs against the University of Toronto. Tahseen Shah struck 27, Michael Walton hit 25* late in the innings and Tarun Doodram scored 23. Jahanzeb Niazi top-scored with 40 from 35 balls for the U of Toronto but Keenan Tinto’s 4/29 from 4 overs put pressure on the batsmen. Aaditya Varanharajan was also successful with the ball, taking 3/15 from 4 overs and Aran Pathmanathan chipped in with 2/24 (4 overs) and held two catches.TThe University of Toronto innings ended at 123 all out after 19 overs, leaving York with an 18 run win.
In the Final, a second wicket stand of 80 in 9 overs between Priyank Chohan (59) and Harsh Thaker (35) paved the way for Sheridan College’s 162/9 from 20 overs. Four York batsmen made a start with the bat, scoring between 15 and 23 runs, but the target proved too much and York stumbled to 104 all out after 17.1 overs. Opener Amrinder Atwal made 23 before losing his wicket to leave York on 42/4 after 8.1 overs. Tarun Doodram hit 19 and there was a brief revival in the York innings as Keenan Tinto (25) and Michael Walton (15) had a brief stand. Ray Bynes had a tidy bowl conceding just 13 runs from 4 overs and taking 1 wicket. Shubham Gogan took 2/15 from 3 overs and Priyank Chohan 2/20. Sabes Rasanayagaam took 2/28 in an interesting 2.1 overs in the closing overs.