June 24, Cupertino, CA. On a wonderfully sunny Sunday afternoon, a 500-strong crowd of cricket enthusiasts jostled for space along the boundary flags on the Santa Clara Cricket Ground. The event was the championship match in the Under-15 category of the 2nd US National Junior Cricket Tournament conducted by the bay area non-profit organization, California Cricket Academy. The moment was the imminent win of home team favorite CCA All Stars. As the crowd waited in hushed silence, Mital Patel of New Jersey Select XI ran in to bowl to Mihir Deo of CCA All Stars. As the ball passed wide of the batsman, the umpire declared it a wide. The crowd erupted into a frenzy of celebration and the rest of the CCA All Stars team ran in to congratulate their batsman.

The much anticipated finals turned out to be a tame affair. Early in the morning, Select XI won the toss and elected to bat. With star batsman Greg Sewdial, along with C Mirza and Mital Patel in good nick, they expected to put up an imposing total and make All Stars sweat through the chase. All Stars had other ideas. The top-half of Select XI collapsed under a fantastic opening spell of controlled and sustained seam bowling by the diminutive Arsh Buch and Raman “McGrath” Nelakanti. The two tied a noose around the top order bats. In his very second over, Raman cut a ball back towards Mirza who returned a dolly to him. Arsh from the other end trapped danger-man Greg Sewdial leg before. The writing was on the wall. Spinner Pranay Suri joined the party soon after and helped hasten Select XI’s end. For a team that played so well in the earlier rounds leading up to the finals, Select XI’s final score of 72 All Out was nothing but disastrous. A target of 73 runs was never going to challenge the champs. Select XI had to dig deep into their bag of tricks to pull off a win.

But that was never going to be. All Stars started their innings with characteristic flourish with captain Akash and Adhiraj Watave getting 27 runs on the board in fairly quick time. Adhiraj and Akash left in quick succession leaving Mihir Deo and Pranay Suri to do the honors, which they accomplished with surgical precision.

Of the 8 nationals teams that participated in the Under 15 category, All Stars were head and shoulders above the rest. There are a couple of takeaways from the Under 15 group – Sewdial, and M Patel of Select XI, Jagannathan, Deo, Buch, Nelakanti, Suri and Watave of All Stars, and S Ahmad and S Niazi of Citrus Cougars all have enormous talent and players to watch.

In the Under 13 category, CCA Lords found no real challenge amongst their opponents. They demolished the opposition in every one of their preliminary matches. Their top order had the capability to amass huge runs (247 for 3 in 25 overs was their best effort) while their bowlers steamrolled through the opposition in every instance. The finals against Citrus Mustangs again turned out to be a one-sided affair. Roshan Varadarajan, captain of the Lords, won the toss and elected to bat. Lords put up an imposing score of 183 for 3 in 25 overs, with opener Sagar Joshi who has had a fantastic run with the bat and behind the wickets in this tournament, clocking 41 runs. Roshan remained unbeaten with a quicksilver 33, while left-handed Vikram Valluri gave him company for the most part with a stylish 43. With the exception of captain Shakeel Ahmad, Citrus Mustangs never really put up a fight and collapsed for a meager 61.

If there are takeaways from the Under 13 tournament, it is the cohesiveness of the CCA Lords team. They knew their game, played as a team, and showed caliber in every department of the game. Pradhan rightfully won the Best Bowler award, walking away with 16 wickets in 5 matches. He bowled a tight line, and was stingy with runs as well. On the batting front, Joshi demonstrated grit, competence and consistence, scoring an average of 40, and won the Best Batsman award. Man of the Tournament and captain of Lords, Varadarajan played 3 excellent innings, was useful with the ball, took a couple of fantastic catches in the close-in position and captained his team very well. Shakeel Ahmad of Citrus Cougars and Anirudh Mayasandra of MMCA are the other players to watch.

If the Under 15 and Under 13 finals were relatively mild affairs, the Under 11 final between Toronto Cricket Academy and CCA Jaguars was a completely different story. Winning the toss, TCA scored 132 for 3 in their allotted 25 overs. A Siyyid once again scored 67 n.o., and was ably supported by M Patel (29 n.o.). The Jaguars bowling lacked the bite and Siyyid scored freely, hitting them all over the park. Chasing a target of 133 is imposing at any level of junior cricket. TCA Director Brian Hale was quite sure that the game was in their bag.

The Jaguars however seem to have scant regard for tall scores. They set about their chase with clinical efficiency. Mohak Buch (21) started aggressively and plundered 21 in double quick time. When he left, partner Hersh Solanki (32) and captain Neil Tagare destroyed the rest of the TCA attack and reached the target with 5 overs to spare.

I would look closely at some of the raw talent visible in the Under 11 age group. Sayyid of TCA was by far, the best of the lot, showing fantastic cricketing sense, application and technique. Other batsmen to watch are Solanki and Tagare of Jaguars, all-rounder Buch and bowler Vaidyanathan, who had an impressive haul of 14 wickets in this tournament.

Vaidyanathan also won the Sportsman of the Tournament award for his fantastic gesture of wanting to share his Man of the Match award with his team-mate Hersh Solanki.

CCA made a clean sweep of the tournament for the 2nd time running, winning the finals in all the three age categories.