On March 15, UTM hosted their annual home Ontario Colleges Athletic Association extramural cricket tournament, involving Fanshawe, Humber North, Seneca, and Humber Lakeshore, and two UTM teams.
UTM Blue started off with a very strong win over Humber Lakeshore thanks to some impressive bowling and good batting by Usama Ahmed and Waiz Akhter. The second game was between the tournament’s two favourites, Humber North and UTM White. The game did not disappoint.
Inspiring bowling and excellent fielding by UTM restricted Humber to 29 runs in five overs. UTM started off strong thanks to Rayed Saeed and Hussam Arif, but the fall of quick wickets in the third and fourth over left UTM needing 10 runs of the last over. Unfortunately, UTM White just missed out on the win, losing by three runs.
Next, UTM Blue played Seneca in a game that turned out to be a heartbreaker. Once again, UTM lost out in a close contest as Seneca pulled away with the victory. Nonetheless, thanks to the net run rate, UTM Blue finished at the top of their group and qualified for the semifinals.
UTM White then made short work of Fanshawe and confirmed second place in their group. Because of their second place, UTM White would have to play the third-place Humber Lakeshore to secure a semifinal spot against UTM Blue. UTM White excelled on the field and pulled away with the victory. This set up the intense clash between UTM White and UTM Blue in the semifinal
UTM Blue won the toss and elected to bowl first. Their captain, Rafay Aman, bowled an impressive spell, but thanks to some powerful hitting by Gyles Dias, UTM White set a target of 50 for their rivals. After some intelligent batting by Usama Ahmed and Waiz Akther, the game looked like it was going to be close. However, Bertram Miles knocked over Akther, ruling out what could have been a close finish.
The teams for the final were set: UTM White took on Humber North once again. UTM White won the toss and elected to bat. Tight bowling by Humber restricted UTM White to just 30 runs. Humber started off strong, and it looked like they would run away with the championship until an impressive over by Hamza Sajjad brought UTM White back in to the game. Captain Hasan Shahid turned to his death over specialist, Saad Fareed, in the last over. Humber needed 10 runs to win.
Humber was knocking the ball around with ease. With two balls to go and four runs required, Humber’s captain took off for a third run that would have guaranteed their victory, but once again UTM’s fielding came to the rescue when Gyles Dias got Humber’s captain run out. In the last ball, Humber required two runs, which they could not pull off, and UTM was declared the champion.
Not only did UTM White win the tournament, they also qualified for the first-ever OCAA Extramural Championship, which is played between the top four OCAA teams. Before this tournament, Humber North was ranked fourth and UTM fifth.
