Omaha Cricket Club

Nebraska Cricket Club won their second Midwest Championship cricket tournament in Topeka, Kan. on Oct. 7, 2007. Members of the club were invited to Omaha City Hall to present their championship trophy to Mayor Mike Fahey and have their picture taken with him. The trophy will be on display in City Hall for 30 days. The photo with Mayor Fahey can be found along with other photos from the Midwest 2007 Championship in the Club Photo Gallery Page.

Nebraska Cricket Club defeated Iowa State CC in the final by 22 runs to win the Midwest Twenty/20 Championship for the first time since 2003.
After losing the toss and being sent into bat, NCC got a terrific start with 19 runs off the first over and never looked back. An excellent 54 run 3rd wicket partnership was produced by good hitting and smart running between the wickets from Nirmal Srinivasan and Manju Shri. Srinivasan anchored the innings with a superb captain's knock, top scoring with 57 off 47 balls. The score was also moved along with a brilliant cameo from Rampi Cheruku, who clubbed 24 off 10 including three 6s.

NCC finished on 192/9 which was always going to be difficult to track down. However, they got off to an excellent start from their top order and were well placed at 61/1 after 7 overs to make a thrilling chase. Danger man Abrar was on 51 at the start of the 16th over and looked well set having struck four 4s and two 6s. But a big gamble paid off as Manju Shri was brought back on after a wayward opening spell. Shri took a wicket first ball back having Babu out skying a cut shot which was well taken on the run by Peter Della Penna. After hitting the next delivery for two, Abrar was caught on the long on boundary by Jatin Khurana trying to go for another six. It was a crucial double wicket over for Shri, and it left him with figures of 3/28. Once Abrar was gone, the lower order could not sustain the required scoring rate and the match was over. Nirmal won the Man of the Match Award for the second time in the tournament after collecting his first in the team's must win second match in group play.

In the semifinal, it was a memorable performance from Francis Origanti that sent the team through over Topeka CC. Chasing 150, Origanti blitzed the bowling for nine 4s and eight 6s, bringing up us century in style with a 6 over long on in just 43 balls. He was the easy choice for Man of the Match, carrying his bat for 117 not out.

Nebraska Cricket Club has reached the semifinals of the Midwest Twenty/20 championships held in Topeka and hosted by Kansas Cricket Club during the weekends of Sep 29th and Oct 6th. NCC plays Kansas Cricket Club in semi finals at 8:30am on Oct. 6 in Topeka, Kan.

After losing their first match on Saturday, NCC needed to win on Sunday to advance. Playing against Cerner, Kansas CC, NCC was chasing a small but difficult target of 131. Tight bowling saw the asking rate climb to almost 10 an over with five overs left. But Bhaskar Krishna turned the match around with a string of slog sweeps for six, turning the match upside down in the 17th and 18th overs and allowing NCC to pass the target with 5 balls to spare, winning the match by 3 wickets and sending them through to the second weekend. NCC will now face Topeka and then play the winner of Kansas City and Iowa State.

Following teams are the semi finalists:

Pool A:
1)Topeka
2)Iowa State

Pool B:
1)Kansas City
2)Nebraska

Follow the link to the Club Photos on the left.

Defending champions Kansas City won their 2nd consecutive Championship at OCC Challenger Series 2007 by beating Iowa Bulls in a tremendous battle.

KCCC defeated Iowa Bulls by 4 wickets as Hassan Zaidi won his second Man of the Match Award for the tournament.

MVP of the series was presented to Mr. Raja for his excellent performances at the top of the batting order for Kansas City. The Best Bowler of the Tournament Trophy was Awarded to Mr. Everton for the second straight year. Best Batman of the series went to Amir Raja for being the aggregate top run scorer in the tournament.

The Creightonian, Creighton University's student newspaper, devoted two pages in their sports section to the OCC Challenger Series 2007. The article featured fantastic photos and discussed how some of the team members have used cricket to strengthen their cultural and community ties. Two members affiliated with Creighton University, Social Work Professor Dr. Francis Origanti and Pharmacy Grad student Jatin Khurana, were interviewed for the article as well as several other members of the team.

Article will be available online soon.

Kansas City CC has won the 2nd straight OCC challenger series ( 2006 and 2007).

Tournament recap will be published soon.

Metro area residents had an opportunity to witness cricket on television as the OCC Challenger Series 2007 was covered by a KPTM FOX 42 camera crew Sept. 15 at OCC's N.P. Dodge Park Ground. The video shoot was aired on the 9 p.m. news that same night.

We will add the link to the video very soon.

The OCC Challenger Series 2007 received more publicity from local media on Sept. 11 with an article in the Omaha World Herald. 09/11/07.

Here's the link on initial announcement of OCC challenger series 2007 on Omaha World Herald.

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1200&u_sid=10128999


Omaha World herald annonced the OCC challenger series Cup 2007 Semi finals and chamionship finals on Sep 23rd.
The article will be available online very soon.

Omaha World herald published the winners of the tournament on 24th, with all the statistics and results.
The article will be available online very soon.

Congratulations to Jatin Khurana on his excellent knock with 109 not out against Omaha XI. Welcome to OCC Centurion Honours Club.

The 23 year old is the second person to hit a century in the 14 year history of OCC on the N.P. Dodge Park Ground.