George goes Kaboom!

George Mathew of Smart Choice NJ scored 45 runs on 18 balls with 5 huge 6's


George's batting

Caption the pic

Naveed Gul goes deep

Naveed Gul scored 83 runs with the help of five 4's and eight majestic 6's against Freedom Cricket Club on July 13th 2014

Naveed Gul batting highlights

Enjoy!

South Africa vs Sri Lanka & India vs England

Another busy day in the world of cricket as Sri Lanka beat South Africa by 87 runs but Hashim Amla the run making machine notched up another century in the defeat.  While on the other side of the world, India won the toss and elected to bat on the first day and Murli Vijay scored his first century outside of India to lead a solid start for India.  Enjoy the highlights below.


South Africa vs Sri Lanka 2nd ODI highlights

Hashim Amla scored his 2nd century

India vs England 1st test match Day 1 highlights

Sri Lanka vs South Africa Highlights

Hashim Amla continues his fine form against Sri Lanka with another century as South Africa beat Sri Lanka by 75 runs.  Enjoy the highlights below as well Hashim's century.

South Africa vs South Africa 1st ODI highlights

Hashim Amla century against Sri Lanka in the first ODI

Best Catches in New Zealand History

Trent Boult took a remarkable catch against West Indies in a T20 game the other day but do you think that was the best ever in the Kiwis history? You be the judge and suggest which one is the best ever.  Click the link below to see all the amazing catches.

Best Ever Catches in Kiwis History

Enjoy

MCC vs ROW Match details

Game Highlights 

Warne and Sachin Tendulkar interview

Saeed Ajmal 4 wickets 

Sachin batting in MCC vs ROW

Yuvraj Batting (132 runs)

Finch Batting (181 runs)

CLNJ Power Ranking after week 1

1. Gymkhana: Last year's champion couldn’t have started the season any better with a win over Newark
2. Newark CC: With the addition of Haider Ali and Rafaqat Ali the potent batting and bowling lineup got even deeper
3. Incredible Cricket Club: Started off the season with a good win over South Gujrat
4. Freedom Cricket Club: With the addition of Ketan Patel and Bharat coming back, they will be in the hunt all summer long
5. Smart Choice New Jersey: Back to back hard games to start season
6. Miro Cricket Club: Still can’t figure out as to how they missed the playoffs last year. Kunal’s health and Rimal’s batting form will be the key.
7. South Gujrat Cricket Club: Off to a slow start with a loss to Incredible but they will be back as they usually do.
8. Holmdel Cricket Club: Lost the first game but with Kunal and Rohan spear heading their batting and sprinkle in the imports in the bowling department through out the season and they will be just fine.
9. Spartans Cricket Club: This team of 300, I mean of 11 competes on a high level week in and week out.
10. Edison Cricket Club: Usually slow starters but as the weather warms up so does Edision CC.
11. Tiranga Cricket Club: Won against Edison CC but coming weeks will tell if this trend continues. 
12. Warriors Cricket Club: Won it easily against short handed Essex Eagles. 
13. Indians Cricket Club: Lost to a good Freedom team but they will be the X factor in the hunt for the playoffs. 
14. Hell Raizers Cricket Club: Started the season with a lost to Spartans but more importantly gave away 299 runs.
15. Essex Eagles: Promoted from Division 2 but starting the first game with 10 players is not a good sign.
16. Legion Cricket Club: Lost the first game and started the season with two of its best players tranfering to the other team.

Smart Choice New Jersey vs Newark Cricket Club

A new era started with team changing its name from Stars Cricket Club to Smart Choice New Jersey on a chilly Sunday morning for the first game of the year as the teams tried to make up games for the month of Ramadan.  Newark won the toss and elected to bat on a pitch that reminded the ruins of Mohenjo-daro. Nomi and Adnan shared the new ball and in the very last ball of the first over Nomi struck timber and SCNJ started the season of to good start.  Both opening bowler kept the ball wicket to wicket and got the reward on an uneven pitch and Newark was reduced to 36 for 6 in the first 10 overs.  Newark counter attacked, after the initial blow and with the help of shoddy fielding and keeping, scored 174 runs in there in their allotted 40 overs.  Nomi was pick of the bowler as he took 5 wickets and he was well supported by Adnan Akmal and Naveed Gul with two wickets each.

After a good meal, the chase started, with Naveed and Adeel playing good stokes all over the ground.  Naveed was first to go when the scored reached 37 but it looked everyone was in a hurry to go back as wicket started to fell at regular interval.  From 37 for 0 SCNJ were reduced to 7 for 63 and a huge loss was starring at their faces. The lower order resisted as again Nomi (30*) and Adnan (23) put up a valiant effort with the bat as well but it wasn’t good enough to save the game.

Notable performances

Bowling: Nomi 5 for 35, Adnan Akmal 2 for 21 and Naveed Gul 2 for 26

Batting: Nomi 30*, Adnan Akmal 23 and Adeel Khan 22

Link to the scorecard

http://www.dreamcricket.com/clnj/scorecarddisplay.aspx?gameid=8135

Aspire NJ-NY Umpires

Dickie Bird

Every year we hear instances of shocking umpiring decisions within our local leagues; some due to lack of knowledge and some due to the sheer stubbornness and arrogance of the umpire. Regardless of the reason, we all know that these decisions can change the course of the game and even decide the outcome. My goal with this blog is not to point fingers at the umpires or discuss specific cases, but want to point fingers at ourselves and the league authorities who may have contributed to the current horrible umpiring standards which we are accustomed to in our local leagues.

I believe that in order for us to improve our umpiring standards, we as a league should encourage our umpires to join trainings, seminars and most importantly real game situation seminars where they can learn from qualified umpires (we have quite a few in our local leagues and damn good ones I might add). Now the biggest question is, how do we “encourage” our current roster of umpires to take part in these trainings etc.? TWO WORDS: RECOGNITION & COMPENSATION

I propose that we start to recognize umpires that come to the games with the intention of doing a good job and not just for the sake of collecting the umpiring fees. I appreciate the effort these guys make to come and stand in the hot sun and officiate, but what I don’t appreciate is the lack of professionalism some of these umpires show by not even carrying a coin for the toss. So, I say go ahead and recognize ONLY good umpires at the end of the year so, maybe the umpires who don’t meet the mark understand that their lack of application is being noticed.

My second proposal will be to place umpires who attend the league sanctioned trainings I mentioned above in a higher compensation tier. This way the umpires will be compensated as per their certification and experience. Yes, this may put a bit of an extra burden on the teams as far as expenses are concerned, but in the long run it will benefit the teams.

These were just a few ideas that I think will benefit our umpires and our leagues. I will love to hear what your thoughts are on the matter and who knows; maybe an idea that came from you will be implemented in our leagues which may benefit our cricket community.