The Ontario Stallions played unbeaten, ending with a perfect 5-0 record to emerge as Champions of the Winnipeg-hosted August 20-26 Canada Cup U17 tournament. As one of the six participating teams, the Stallions registered comfortable victories against each of their five opponents: Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario Colts, Prairies and Quebec during the five-day round-robin tournament.
Second-placed Ontario Colts, however, had the better of their co-province rivals in terms of the tournament’s individual honours. Dilraj Deol of the Colts emerged as the tournament’s highest run-scorer, while his teammate Tarandeep Singh Chawla finished second on the rankings for the highest wicket-takers. Deol amassed 244 runs from his five innings batted for an impressive 48.80 average. He hit three half-centuries, struck one six and sixteen fours to end with a strike rate of 65.59.
Chawla’s 11 captured wickets were marginally behind that of the tournament leader, Gurshaan. Playing for the Prairies, Gurshaan’s 12 wickets were captured at an economy rate of 3.68 and at 12.42 average. By comparison Chawla’s 11 victims were taken at an economy rate of 3.31 and at 6.36 average.
Eventual champions Ontario Stallions had begun the tournament with a comfortable opening day victory over Alberta. Batting first Stallions posted 226/10 in 49.3 overs with Yash Mondkhar (37), Harikesan Bala (35) and Anoush Fernandes (30) as the main run-scorers. Bowling for Alberta, Muhammad Huzaifa 3/31-10, Bhumil Patel 2/25-10 and Zarghoon Sina 2/40-10 were the main wicket-takers.
Chasing an imposing 227 for victory Alberta failed to get anywhere close. They were bundled out for just 79 in 25.3 overs with five of their batsmen dismissed for ducks while failing to trouble the Scorers. Zarghoon Sina’s 44 was the only score of note as the Ontario Stallions bowlers made mayhem of Alberta’s feeble batting.Gavinir Bhullar took 3/22-7 overs while Nigel Ramsaroop 2/0-1.3, Rohan Garg 2/9-3 and Mosam Parekh 2/12-4 all had two-wicket hauls. Ontario Stallions’ margin of victory was a highly comfortable 147 runs.
Stallions’ second tournament win was an even more comfortable Day2 victory over
the Prairies who were dismissed for 42 in 25 overs. Yuvraj Samra claimed 5/3-3.2
overs to scythe the Prairies batsmen, six of whom registered ducks while no one
managed to reach double figures. Gavinvir Bhullar 2/7-2 and Ravindra Nauth
2/14-7 provided able support to Samra’s outstanding bowling.
Set a paltry 43 for victory, Stallions easily reached its target in just six (5.2)
overs without losing any wickets. Openers Yuvraj Samra 21 and Alark Vyas
11 were both unbeaten as Stallions won by 10 wickets.
Stallions then continued its winning ways on Day Three with a three-wicket
win over BC. Gurnaj Sidhu’s 54 was the top score in BC’s posted fifty overs
total of 145/10. Rohan Garg 2/6-10, Sagar Patel 2/22-10, Ravindra Nauth
2/25-9 and Yash Moindkar 2/37 -5 were each double wicket-takers for Ontario
Stallions.
146 to win proved to be a bit troublesome for Ontario Stallions’ batters
as seven wickets were lost before the target was eventually reached
in the forty-seventh (46.3) over. Miguel Nandu (41) was the
Stallions’ top-scorer while Johan Jhangra 2/21-10 and Finley
Dixon 2/32 -10 were BC’s best bowlers.
Stallions’ Day Four went a lot better than the
previous twenty-four hours, highlighted as it
was by a comfortable 140 runs win over
Quebec. Batting first Stallionhad meaningful contributions from Yuvraj Samra (68), Ravindra Nauth (49) and Miguel Nandu (44) in posting 241/10 in 49.3 overs. Quebec’s bowling was highlighted by Jashan Lubana 3/59-10 and Abdul Bhatti 2/20-5.3.
242 to win proved to be unreachable for Quebec’s batsmen who succumbed to be all out for 101 in 40.1 overs. Varun Bassi’s 28 was the only score of note as his teammates were found wanting against the outstanding bowling of Nigel Ramsaroop 4/17-5.1, Jaffar Samad 2/9-5 and Ravindra Nauth 2/9-8. Those three combining to lead the Stallions to victory by the very comfortable margin of 140 runs.
The Stallions’ final hurdle en route to claiming championship title honours was its Day 5 clash against fellow provincial rivals, the Ontario Colts. The keenly anticipated final day encounter between the tournament’s two unbeaten teams, both having entered with perfect 4-0 records, however, proved to be somewhat anticlimactic. Stallions winning by 30 runs to clinch the coveted title as tournament champions.
Batting first Stallions posted 144/9 in 38 overs reduced from fifty because of the amount of dew on the playing field. Ravindra Nauth’s 31 was the top score while Tarandeep Singh Chawla 3/13-4 and Dilraj Deol 2/24-6.2 were the Colt’s most successful bowlers.
Colts in reply were dismissed for 114 in 35.1 overs with Kishan Misir’s 31 being the only score of note. Yuvraj Samra 3/20-5.1, Ravindra Nauth 2/16-6 and Rohan Garg 2/30-8 were the Stallions’ primary wicket-takers in its championship title-sealing win.
Stallions finished the tournament with a perfect 5-0 record while the Ontario Colts solitary defeat left it at 4-1 from its five matches played. British Columbia 3-2, Prairies 2-3, Quebec 1-4 and Alberta 0-5 completed the Points table at the conclusion of the five-day tournament.
Among the batsmen, Hemant Saini of the Prairies and Ontario Colts’ Karan Amin shared the honours for the tournament’s highest individual score, both posting 84 in their respective matches against Alberta. There were sixteen half-centuries scored during the tournament with Dilraj Deol as the overall highest runs scorer accounting for three (79,69,61) of those. Jordan Matthews (56, 72), Gurnaj Sidhu (67, 54) and Tarandeep Singh Chawla (54,54) were double half-centurions while Gurshaan (75), Yuvraj Singh (68), Jai Singh (64), Virjot Singh (53) and Abdul Bhatti each also had fifty-plus scores.
For the bowlers, Yuraj Singh’s 5/3-3 and Tarandeep Singh Chawla’s 5/35-10 were the only five wicket hauls captured during the tournament. Gurshaan 4/6-7.3, Nigel Ramroop 4/17-5.1 and Tanveer Grewal 4/20 10 each had four-wicket hauls