Cricket fever in Chicago

India Post News Service

CHICAGO: In an exciting finish the cricket match held at the Skokie Sports Park in Skokie, a Chicago suburb  on September 06, 2022. Rowdies have turned victorious against winning with 18 runs. The Hurricanes have had a decent season themselves and only two of the seven games they have played. Both teams were in the running to claim the top spot, which would ensure a direct entry to the finals. Both Rowdies and Hurricanes were in the top 3 followed very closely by The Destroyers.

Rowdies won the toss and decided to bat first, the same as the last encounter with Hurricanes. Skokie ground has proven to be favorable to the team batting first fifty percent of the times, which is not something you look past when you want to win.

Wasim and Moin Patel opened the innings for Rowdies but were able to do very little against the opening bowlers Pruthvish Patel and GarvKhera. Moin who was striking well was the first to fall at a mere 20 runs to Purthvish. Wasim followed soon after with only 4 runs. Sohel Patel and Mohsin Detraliya showed aggression with their partnership of 55 runs. Ayaz Patel who came after Sohel also managed to put in a good partnership with Mohsin for 44 runs. Javid Patel’s 33 off 12 balls was the highlight of the game. At a strike rate of 275.00 it was a sight to be seen. The Rowdies managed to put some more runs up with their middle and lower order batting supportively to end at 216 runs, a massive target to chase.

In the absence of Dhairya Mistry, Urvsish opened the innings with Ravi Shah, who has been known to dabble in the opening if needed. However, this time Javid got him out for a cheap 5 run stint to a lbw. Sargam Patel, the next batter in line, started off slow but gained momentum. He managed to put up 2 partnerships back-to-back with Pruthvish for 81 runs and with Manan for 79 runs. He succumbed to a catch by Javid off Saeed Gantiwala, but not before he scored a whopping 75 of 50 balls. Pruthvish and Manan both put up 53 and 50 runs to the total.

All the efforts from Hurricanes could only get them close to total but not to the win. Rowdies won this exciting match by 6 runs. Javid Patel was adjudged the Player of the Match for his contribution with his bat 33/12 and 2 wickets for an econ rate of 7.75

The guest of honor Manishkumar Patel from Nirav Foods was also present to view the tantalizing game. This was the first time that Manish was available for a game and he said he enjoyed the competition between Hurricanes and Rowdies. Manish has been actively supporting club cricket for more than 2 decades, but this was the first time Nirav Foods supported the game at the league level.

Manish believes in giving back to the community and what better way to give back than to give back to a game that has been the core of the Southeast Asian community. He reminisced that 25 years ago Indians and Pakistanis would have to find a way to congregate, and cricket helped them, just like the Nirav brand helped the immigrant families keep their culture alive through fresh food and masala.

Score: Chicago Rowdies: 216/7 (20.0 OVERS) Chicago Hurricanes: 210/6 (20.0 OVERS)
Result: Chicago Rowdies won by 6 Run(s)
Player of the Match: Javid Patel