By Rifat Malik
The USAC 2024 – Men’s National Championship came to a close with Mid Atlantic winning the tournament with a dominant display of cricket. The tournament provided plenty of entertainment for fans, both watching on the ground and those who were sitting in front of their screens. Some very good cricket was played by all the eight teams, but in the end, only one could be crowned champions.
Southwest, coming into the final, was unbeaten throughout the tournament and was the favorite to win the title. They had some very in-form players, including Smit Patel, Ali Sheikh, and Nitish Kumar. However, things didn’t go as planned for them. Mid-Atlantic were unbeaten as well and kept their winning momentum into the final. Preet Shah was amazing for them throughout the tournament and was able to cash in his good form in the final.
Toss and Teams
Southwest skipper, Ali Sheikh, won the toss and decided to bat first.
Mid Atlantic Playing XI: Dhruv Pawar, Gauranshu Sharma, Ishan Sharma, Kunwarjeet Singh, Manoj Acharya, Noman Iftikhar, Prannav Chettipalayam †, Preet Shah, Ritwik Behera, Stephen Wiig, Yasir Mohammed*
Southwest Playing XI: Aarin Nadkarni, Abhimanyu Poswal, Ali Sheikh*, Arir Ali, Harmeet Singh Baddhan, Nitish Kumar, Rushil Ugarkar, Shuja Naqvi, Smit Patel, Sushant Modani, Zia Shahzad.
Dismal Batting Display, Perfect Bowling Plan
The batting performance by Southwest summed out their day perfectly. Though they had a promising start, the top order gave away their wickets cheaply and everything was down hill for the batting lineup. The openers had a partnership of 50, but soon they were 58 for four. That’s four wickets within eight runs. Apart from Harmeet’s half-century, the team’s batting scorecard looked like a phone number. In the end, they could only post a meager target of 157. Preet Shah had a field day on the pitch, taking four vital wickets for his side.
Too easy for Mid-Atlantic’s top-order
The bowling performance by the Southwest was no different than their batting. It seemed like a competition of who would perform worse. But take nothing away from Mid Atlantic’s top order, which chased the target like it was street cricket. Ritwik Behera was dismissed on just one. However, the unbeaten partnership between Prannav Chettipalayam and KUNWARjeet Singh finished the match in just 27 overs. Prannav Chettipalayam scored 71 while KUnwarjeet made an unbeaten 72, marking a dominant 9-wicket victory for their side.
Player of the Match
Although the performances by Mid-Atlantic’s batters were remarkable, Preet Shah was awarded the Player of the Match prize for his brilliant figures of 4 for 23.
