Another amazing day in memory of Damian — September 9, 2007
Sunday, September 9th brought yet another gorgeous, sunny day for the 4th Annual Damian Mills Memorial Match at Assiniboine Park to be played between the Winnipeg Juniors Honorary XI and the Manitoba Cricket Association Honorary XI. Like two years ago, some of the Mills family relatives made the trip all the way from New Zealand to take in the event, and they also supplied the match balls all the way from their home country.
The toss was won by captain Joe Lovelace of the WJCC XI, who promptly decided to take advantage of the conditions and bat. After Damian's father, Barry Mills, faced the honorary first ball of the match, former Canada U-19 members Tommy Jilani and Paul Ziesmann opened the innings for WJCC. After a few quick boundaries from Jilani, one of the league's top opening bowlers Noor Khan (2-17) dismissed Ziesmann for naught and Jilani (17) shortly after. It was now MCA XI bowler Hitesh Modha's turn to strike, quickly putting WJCC in a hole at 3 wickets for only 25 runs. With runs hard to come by on what was clearly turning out to be a bowling track, Lovelace and veteran Keith Deonaraine played patiently, scrounging up runs where they could and planning their innings like a chess match. After a key 47 run partnership, Lovelace proceeded to run out Deonaraine (14), handing momentum back to MCA XI. The biggest partnership of the innings (56) came between Lovelace and Andrew Amsden (18), freshly back from a stint in England. Led by a gritty 82 from their skipper Lovelace, WJCC managed to scrape their way to 190 by the time the innings was complete.
The MCA Honorary XI opened their innings with aggressive batsmen Ranjith Udhayshankar and Vishal Chaabra. Chaabra suffered an unlucky dismissal as Udhayshankar hit a bullet straight back to opening bowler Neil Barrate, who got a piece of it before it went onto the non-striker stumps to run out Chaabra for naught. Barrate (3-43) also struck with his bowling, getting the key wickets of Udhayshankar (24), Garvin Budhoo (5), and Manoj Chaudhari (1). The only thing keeping MCA XI in the match was the masterful play of Inderjit Sodha. With wickets falling around him, Sodha kept their total well on pace. After a solid partnership of 43 between Sodha and Modha (19), MCA XI only needed 50 more runs for victory from the last 10 overs. WJCC off-spinner Narvinder Gill (2-22) broke up this and the other key partnership of 49 between Sodha and Jagjit Gurm (19) with a nagging line and length. With the target still in reach for MCA XI, WJCC's Lovelace looked to Jilani for a breakthrough. Jilani did not disappoint, racking up 2 wickets in only 1.4 overs, one of whom was Sodha (65) who played a masterful innings. That sealed the 4th straight win for the WJCC Honorary XI in this event!
The always competitive, yet friendly match once again did not disappoint. Much money was raised for the Damian Mills Junior Cricket Trust Fund. Many great memories of Damian were shared on and off the field by all, and everyone can't wait for next year's event!
