Chicago Blasters defend title against Chicago Catchers

It was a great day to start off a match between Chicago Blasters owner Iftekhar Shareef & Consul General Amit Kumar attending the Minor League cricket match between the two Chicago-based teams Chicago Blasters and Chicago Catchers on Saturday. Before the match began, two minutes silence was observed in the memory of those who lost their lives on 9/11.

Amit Kumar met the Chicago Blasters team owner Mr. Iftekhar Shareef and its general Manager Khurram Syed. He was introduced to the players by Captains Ashar Mehdi and Karan Kumar respectively. He wished them good luck with the league matches. CG Kumar also bowled the ceremonial first ball ahead of the match and batted for one delivery.

There was some excellent bowling, batting and fielding on display in a nail-biting T-20 match won by Chicago Blasters in the last over of the game. CG Kumar expressed optimism that this league involving 27 teams will help promote the wonderful game of cricket in USA and acknowledged the role of the Indian American community in that effort.

There are two other teams in the US Midwest based in Detroit and St Louis. In all, there are 27 teams in USA franchised by USA cricket. ICC has also extended support to this effort. USA Cricket currently enjoys Associate status with ICC and organization of the league is part of their foundational plan to promote cricket in USA.

Chicago Blasters won the match with 4 wickets in hand, Blasters won the toss and elected to put Catchers to bat. They scored 123 runs for the loss of four wickets in 20 overs, Karan Kumar 42, Salman Ahmed 21 and Pankaj Kampli 26 were top scores. Datta prakash 2 wickets, Najam Iqbal and Jedd Joseph grabbed one wicket each. In reply Chicago Blasters scored 126 for six wickets in 19.1 overs. Unbeaten score of 59 runs by man of the match Fahad Babar helped Blasters win.

Chicago Blasters owner Iftekhar Shareef thanked the minor league and USA cricket for the opportunity to own a team.