I’m starting off with the Minor League Cricket semifinals and finals, being held tomorrow and Sunday at Church Street Park in Morrisville, NC. Empire State Titans will meet New Jersey Stallions in the early game at 10:15 am ET, and Golden State Grizzlies face Silicon Valley Strikers at 2:45 pm ET. Empire State had a close 3-game series with Atlanta Fire, winning the final game by 8 wickets after losing game 2 in the final over and winning game 1 by 1 run. Stallions swept Morrisville Cardinals to deny the home team a berth in the semis. Silicon Valley stunned Austin Athletics in the deciding game by chasing 184 at the Austin home ground in Pearland, TX thanks to an otherworldly 132* off 69 balls from the former U19 India team captain and recent import Unmukt Chand. Golden State handled Houston easily in Davis, CA, sweeping their games in lopsided fashion. The winners play on Sunday at 2:15 pm ET for the inaugural Minor League Cricket championship.
Australia’s women and India’s women are playing their only Test match, and both days so far have been shortened by rain. India batted first and are at 276/5. Smriti Mandhana opened and made it to 127 before being caught by Tahlia McGrath at mid off. India finally beat Australia on Tuesday in an ODI at Mackay, stopping the Southern Stars streak at 26 straight ODI wins.
Warwickshire have won both the County Championship and the Bob Willis Trophy. They beat Somerset soundly (that’s been happening a lot lately) and took home the Championship to deny Lancashire, who were briefly in first awaiting the outcome of that game. Warwickshire cemented that title with a massive innings and 199 runs clobbering of Lancs at Lord’s.
The IPL playoffs start next week, and Chennai have already qualified with 18 points. Delhi is next with 16 points. Everbody but Sunrisers Hyderabad could still finish in the top 4 with 3 rounds left.
An actually not-so-crazy week in cricket! Please add more if you have more to report on.
