Rising Stars prevail over Millwoods to become the Premiere Division Champions of 2010

September 12th 2010, a big game day when the Edmonton Premier League final was played between Millwoods and Rising Stars. Morale and hopes were high for both teams as they had secured the top positions in the league (Millwoods: 9-3-0; Rising Stars: 8-3-1). Momentum was certainly on Rising Stars side as they had won their last 5 games to secure their spot in the Final! The Rising Stars team had come from a convincing 7 wickets win in the semi-final against Gujarat; they knew that they were facing a tough opponent in the final. The Millwoods team had shown great success throughout the season and undoubtedly had several of the most talented players in the league.

The day started with a toss which went in favour of Rising Stars, who elected to bat first. Raghu Plaha and Raheel Bhojani gave an aggressive start to Rising Stars but soon Raghu was bowled by a delivery which swung in to him by Wahid Noori. Shortly afterwards Raheel Bhojani was out followed by Dennis Subramanium and Shahzad Bashir. Wahid Noori took four early wickets and Rising Stars were in disarray at 32 for 4 in just 10 overs. Everything started to fit the Millwoods plans but Nishikant Hota and Lalit Mendis played patiently to bring Rising Stars back into the game.

As soon as the Rising Stars hopes started to revive, Nishikant Hota lost his wicket by edging a wide delivery - an important breakthrough given to Millwoods by Sohail. Under immense pressure, Prakash Adhikari and Lalith each played a collapse saving innings for Rising Stars who were 5 down after 35 overs. Rising Star’s last pair Ali Khan and Khawer Abbasi fought hard till the end and added a valuable 27 runs; this took their team to 143 for 9 after the 50th over.  Millwoods did well to restrict their opponents to a very low score, but patient batting in the middle overs saved valuable wickets which would haunt the Millwoods team in the end.

Millwoods innings started off with the blast, when Balaji smashed 3 consecutive fours all over the ground in the very first over! Salman Chaudhary applied his own fireworks and played like a man wanting to make more than a cricketing point. Once Balaji was out caught at square leg, Abdullah supported Salman well; the Millwoods team was on top of their game and in a commanding position at 62 for 1 in 10 overs.

Rising Stars knew the glorious uncertainties of this game and never lost hope. A change in the bowling was required at this stage. Rising Stars brought a spinner into attack from River Valley end. This changed worked for Rising Stars and Salman Chaudhary and Abdullah soon fell off to Shahzad Bashir’s quick spin bowling. Prakash who bowled from the downtown end took Haleem Shah’s wicket in his next over followed by Zain who was out first ball. A big collapse began – a one sided game turned into a nerve wracking match! A game for sure now was heading towards a thrilling end. Jagmeet then joined Wahid but could not survive Prakash’s swinging yorker and was out leg before wicket. Millwoods found themselves struggling at 71 for 6. Rising Stars fortune’s changed and they moved to a commanding position.  From here onwards, there was no looking back for the tenacious team and the players fielded with great intensity.

Wahid and Rocky started to play very patiently in a drizzling rain and tried to bring Millwoods back into the game. Millwoods started to build up until Prakash took off Wahid Noori’s middle stump by beautiful in swinging delivery. Soon Rocky was undone by Khawer’s quick Yorker and Millwoods were  83-8 with Kashif and Sohail left stranded in the middle. At the 34th over Millwoods were 91 for 8 as the teams came off for a scheduled break with the rain causing considerable problems. Despite covering the mat the conditions were so poor that play could not be resumed. Rising Stars A were declared the winners under the Duckworth-Lewis rules as par score required was 127 at that stage. The star of Rising Stars’ bowling was Prakash Adhikari who took 5 wickets in ten overs and surprised the strong Millwoods lineup with many fine deliveries.

The Millwoods team was congratulated on a very good season, having played some excellent cricket to win most of their games. The Rising Stars club had shown a tenacious spirit. The A team had lost in finals of previous competitions but this time came out the winners. Who would have expected the twist in fortunes and the fairy tale run of wins for Rising Stars. All agreed that it would have been more fitting to have been able to complete the game rather than revert to the Duckworth Lewis system; but it was not to be.

Congratulations Rising Stars – The 2010 Champions!