Article - Ottawa Crowns 2018 Cricket Champions Across 3 Divisions
View Article

Ottawa Crowns 2018 Cricket Champions Across 3 Divisions

John Palmer (John.Palmer)
20/10/2018


Besides turkey and pumpkin pie, The Canadian Thanksgiving weekend also saw the official close of the 2018 cricket season in Canada’s Capital.  
After a T20 regular season that saw 11 teams put up thousands of runs, and a handful of centuries, it came down to one weekend to determine a champion. With three matches on October 6 to determine the finalists, and a winner-takes-all final the following day to determine the T20 champion, it was a big weekend of 20 over cricket.

Defence Cricket Club fought their way into the final by winning 2 matches on Saturday in order to face Canterbury Cricket, who led the points table at the end of the regular season and earned their way into the final after a solid win in their Saturday qualifier match.

On a cool early Autumn morning in Ottawa where temperatures strained to reach 10C, Defence won the toss and elected to bat – and why not, with two batsmen in the league top 5, it was an opportunity to set the bar early.  With a cool day plus facing the hot bowling of Canterbury’s Shariq Akhlaq, the Defence team put up 105/9 in their 20 overs.

Canterbury is of course no slackers with the bat.  The always consistent Haris Chaudry put up 309 runs over 8 matches in the regular season came in to bat 3rd, and contributed 39 runs (not out) to help push Canterbury over the top in 18.2 – putting in a final score of 106/5 to take the Ottawa Valley Cricket Council T20 championship.  Shariq Akhlaq with his 4 wickets was named player of the match.

Defence has no reason to be concerned, as they were crowned champions of the “Challenge Division” – beating New Edinburgh Cricket Club by 63 runs in the 50 over format final match back on September 22.  On that day, Defence’s Rajbir Gill knocked 83 runs (not out) en route to 257/10 in 49.5 overs and the team followed up with strong bowling to hold ‘Burghs to 194 all out.

For Canterbury, however, it was their second championship crown of the season, having won the “Citizen Division” 40 over series final against the Royals by 118 runs on September 23 on the strength of Chaudry’s 85 runs.
----
The Ottawa Valley Cricket Council is the centre of excellence for cricket in the Ottawa region, featuring thirteen clubs stretching from Ottawa to Kingston.  In 2017, two members of OVCC teams were selected for the Cricket Canada development squad, and OVCC Junior players have gone on to play for Ontario provincial squads in 2018, which highlights the excellence of the game in the city.  Cricket has been played in the Capital area since 1840, and currently sees the game played across 7 fields in the area, including two picturesque pitches on the grounds of Rideau Hall, home of the Governor-General.

For more information on cricket in Ottawa and the OVCC see https://www.cricclubs.com/ovcc
 

You can also enter comments by CricClubs Login

Comments: