By Ravendra Madholall
SteelCity Warriors retained the Ontario Round-Arm Softball Cricket Association (ORSCA) 10-10 trophy after defeating Masters by 18 runs on Saturday at Sir John. A. Macdonald Public School ground in Brampton.
Masters won the toss and invited SteelCity Warriors to take first strike. They were able to tally up a challenging 115-5 from the allotted 10-overs while Masters were left hanging at 97-5 when the overs expired.
SteelCity Warriors were in trouble at the start of their innings, losing Kumar Doodnauth without scoring while their skipper and the consistent Avish Rukhram hit two sixes before he was spectacularly caught by Abdool Samad at deep backward square.
However, Amit Rukhram steadied the innings. mixing perfect aggression with tidy defense by hitting a responsible 46 laced with four sixes while Naresh Singh also batted attackingly, scoring 24 which included three sixes.
The two also shared an impressive 73-fourth-wicket stand.
Skipper Mark Nazir, who instigated the early wobble, finished with two wickets for 25 runs from his two-over spell while former Guyana first-class wicketkeeper Azib Ali Hanif got one wicket, conceding 16 runs from two overs.
In reply, Masters lost the early wicket of Rajkumar Budhram for duck but his opening partner, Abdool Samad, displayed some aggressive batting, slamming seven sixes in his 27-ball 54 and also participated in a promising 77-run second-wicket stand with Hanif, who hit a fighting, unbeaten 35 that counted three sixes.
After the right-handed Samad was dismissed in the eight over via a catch at long-on and with 36 runs required, the target seemed improbable as the opposing fielders took few outstanding catches.
Veteran player Richie Shivrattan, who was on a hat-trick, finished as the best bowler for the champion unit by snaring two wickets for 21 runs in his two overs while Singh returned to capture one.
Amit was later named the Most Valuable Player for SteelCity Warriors while Samad collected the same prize on the runners-up side.
Both teams received a trophy each, compliments of Satishwar Persaud of Cambridge Jaguars while all the players took home a medal.
President of the ORSCA, Patrick Singh, helped present the trophies. He congratulated SteelCity Warriors for retaining the trophy for two consecutive years.