American Cricket Conference (ACC) - Chicago, Midwest, US Cricket League

After a very disappointing loss in the Day tournament QF, Villa Park kicked off their campaign in Dee Park Relief Challenge against Raptors team stuffed with some firepower. Raptors won the toss and elected to bat first. Salman Ahmed (0) and Bhanu Patur (8*) opened the innings. It was a dream start for VPCC as Salman was sent back on a very first ball of the match. Veteran Amir Khan (50) joined his partner at the crease, and start playing with his usual flare. On the other hand none of the batsmen particularly looked comfortable against VPCC pace battery. But Amir did not need any support as he raced to his fifty with flurry of boundaries. Mizan Chadhury (18), Talha Mohsin (21) and Fazale Haq (18) provided some resistance. Zeyad Imtiaz (2) and Arif Hockla (2) combined to their skills to restrict Raptors to mere 140 runs in allotted 20 overs.

Villa Park opened with explosive Zeyad Imtiaz (15) and grinder Mujtaba Baqir (32). Both provided slow but very steady opening partnership against pace of Talha Mohsin (3) and Manish Singh (0). Zeyad was first to go trying to pull a wide ball down the leg and getting a faint edge. That triggered a mini collapse, but skipper Uzair Ali (52) plugged the slump with his counter attack with very calculated stroke play. Once Mujtaba was run out no one else provide any support to Uzair, but his captain’s innings kept VPCC in the hunt. Raptors smelled blood once Uzair was given LBW off the ball that probably would have missed leg stump. But having long batting line-up paid off for VPCC as Noyam Nasir (10*) and Hassan Bakhshi (10*) finished the game in 18.4 overs.