New Milford Cricket Club organized a trip to Florida in April 2008. New Milford club, full of young and energetic players was set to play 3 games: one day and night game for 20 overs and 2 games for 40 overs. Skipper of NM club Jay Singh decided to take a young team who were ballooning with energy, showed agility on the field and hunger for win. Club could see the team unity not only on the field but also off the field. Team member while not playing cricket enjoyed playing cards, swimming, sprinting and other fun activities together. Special thanks to Mudasaar bhai for being an excellent host and taking care of every need for NM club. NM club won both the longer version and lost the 20-20 game.

Game 1 (Friday) 20-20 day and night game

NM won the toss and elected to bat. The wicket was hard with a true bounce and the outfield was lighting quick setting the stage for a good contest between bat and ball. Taseen and Nabeel ("Chaudhary") opened the innings. The game was video recorded and the highlights of the game will be available on Cricket Council USA site (www.cricketcouncilusa.com) shortly. Highlights of the game included ball to ball commentary from Dushyant and Nabeel. Nabeel scored 5 runs and Taseen11 runs that included 2 excellent cover drives. Viraj went first down and scored 5 runs. Ata scored quick fire 10 runs. Jay was looking good but got stumped. Achal and Dushyant developed a good patnerhsip and scored 16 and 17 respectively. Saad played a glorious shot but was unfortunate to be caught in the outfield. Taha was the next match in and scored fire 10 runs that included a powerful hit to the square leg baoundary. NM end up scoring 127 in 20 overs, probably 30-35 runs short of a challenging total for the hosts. 

Florida cricket club started the innings very aggressively. NM club gave too many extras and FCC went off to a flier. The ball was moving around quite a bit with little room for error for NMCC bowlers. FCC chased the target in 17 overs. Mudasar bhai played a quickfire innings that put FCC in a winning position. Couple of quick wickets towards the end of the chase induced some excitement in NMCC but wasn't enough for a win. In the end, FCC completed the chase very comfortably with 3 overs to spare. Highlight of the game was NM club fielding where Viraj made some excellent stops and took catches.

Game 2 (Saturday) 40-40 day game

NM club lost the toss and were put into field. Dushanyt and Viraj started the bolwing and bolwed some excellent spells. Viraj took 1 wicket and Dushyant was unlucky. Ata and Mudassar were introduced into the attack and that changed the course of the game. Ata was the first change and took 2 wickets that stopped the momentum of FICC. Mudassar Bhai bowled a tremendous spell and put FICC team onto back foot by cleaning up their middle order. He took 4 wickets. FICC looked in trouble at one stage with 90 for 9 but the last wicket partnership was for 50 runs. FICC 11th man struck some lusty blows over long off to take FICC past 150. At that point, it seemed like NMCC had lost the initiative and the game was drifting away from them. Jay got in Achal and got the break through on his first ball. FICC finished the innings for 154 in 30 0vers.

Jay and Taseen opened the innings in which Jay scored a masterful 50. Mudassar bhai scored 14 but was unlucky to get caught in the deep. Ata came in and made a solid 27. He had a steady partnership with Jay but was caught at point. Saad scored 17 quick fire runs. Dushyant and Achal once again got into a good partnership and scored 16* and 10* respectively to finish off the chase for NMCC. NM chased the target with loss of 5 wickets comfartabley in 27 overs. Jay Singh was man of the match.

Game 3 (Sunday) 40-40 day game

Day 3 started off cloudy. The team was pumped after Saturday's win and wanted to continue the momentum. Unfortunately, when we got to the field it looked like a hurricane had passed specifically over the ground. Outfield looked like the Hudson river and the pitch was soggier than 3 day old atta. After various opinions were passed on whether to stay or to try to find another venue, it was decided to finally try and sort out the ground and play there. Out came wipers, blowers, a big thick anaconda rope and other apparatus to dry out the field. 3 hours later, the field was ready for a shortened 25-over game. NMCC won the toss and elected to bat. Saad and Ata opened the innings and took and started hammering away. Both hit 3 bounderies each within the first 3 overs. Highlight of the shots being a square cut by Saad which split 4 fielders. Finally in the 3rd over Saad fell to a great catch in the slips by Mudassar Bhai. An over later Ata was caught at the boundary by the infamous florida legspinner "Romeo". Romeo subsequently came in to bowl his legspins and the wickets started tumbling. Viraj, at 1st down, fell to the mother of all googlies. 2ND down came Achal, who stuck around for a while and stabilized the innings from one side. Dushyant came 3rd down and became victim to another one of Romeo's legspins.  At one point NMCC became 60 for 6. Watchful innings by Achal and equally sported by the young up-and-coming superstar Karan, pulled the scoring along. Achal then stabilized the innings and scored 31 runs. Karan played an anchor role and scored steady 16 runs. Jay bhai also scored 17 runs. Nabeel then came into the crease and scored quick fire 21 runs. NM made 154 in 25 overs.

Florida cricket club started the inning well and were 60 for 1 in 10 overs. Taseen was bought into the attack and took 3 wickets. It was a slow wicket and spinner paradise. Jay took 1 wicket. With match getting close Jay got Achal into the attack who took 4 wickets. With pressure mounting on FCC crumbled into pressure. Nazim took 1 wicket.
Achal was awared with Man of the match.

It was a fun trip with 2 victories under the belt. Besides win the players had fun that will remain the in memories for ever. All the guys are looking forward to another fun loving trip soon

Achal
NM cricket club