The second game of the inaugural Masters USA cricket tournament got underway shortly after the first at Moosa stadium.

Janak Patel if the West had the rub of the coin against his opposite number Dilip Chavhan of the North and had no hesitation to insert the North into bat. On what seemed to a damp wicket this was a good decision.

North opened with Shahid and Darshan and the former got off to a pretty good start scoring 20 off 27 balls when he got out to the canny bowling of Mohammad Hamza in the 10th over.  Darshan wasn’t able to utilize his settling in for 31 balls when he followed suit a few balls later to Dashrath for 3. The North Captain Dilip was out just 3 ball later and North was reeling from Dahsrath’s 2 in an over at 3 for 34 at the end of 11 overs.  Mark Audian and Sanjay Panda play some sensible cricket and eschew all risks to take North to 81 when against the run of play Mark is trapped in front to Dharmesh Shah.  One Mark is replaced by another, this time by Mark Wright the wicketkeeper batsman of the North and another partnership ensues between him and Sanjay Panda taking the score to 122 when Sanjay is caught at the wicket by Parak off Chetan Shah’s bowling. 122 for 5.  Lalit Bhatia and Mark playing some positive cricket take the score to 167 before two run out’s off successive balls in the 45th over see Lalit and Mark depart.  North finishes their quota at 171-7 off 45 overs.

With the batting depth that West had, North would have felt that they were possibly 30-40 runs short especially on a wicket that was considerably drier in the afternoon.  West start with their openers Parak and Balbir, but Parak perishes against Mark Audian in the 3rd over to leave West at 13-1.  Balbir and Sanjeewa at #3 play some attacking cricket and score at more than 5 an over when Balbir gets out at almost a run a ball 44 with 6 4’s in the 14th over to Vishal trapped in front.  Sanjeewa continues  along with Ozair Nana as if nothing ever happened taking the score to 142 in the 28th over before he gets out lbw to Rajiv Shah for well made 54.  Ozair is next out at 156 for a another neat innings of 33 off 65 balls to Sanjay Pandya’s accurate left arm spin.  Mohammad Hamza and Raju Badadare complete the formalities without any further damage in the 38th over and West win the match by 6 wickets.  North tries as many as 10 bowlers to make a fist of the game, but the total was not enough to test West’s batting depth.

The Moan of the match is Sanjeewa Weerasinghe for his 54 off 66 balls with 5 4’s and 1 sixer.