…OMSCC Over-50 final set for tomorrow

THE Ontario Masters Softball Cricket Clubs (OMSCC) 2024 season climaxes tomorrow with the eagerly anticipated Over-50 final featuring defending champions GTA Storm and archrivals Toronto Blizzards at the St Bede’s ground, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.
Playing as Pegasus Storm in the 2023 season, the defending champions ended the five-year supremacy of Toronto Blizzards, bringing a screeching halt to their reign at the Ashtonbee Reservoir ground.

Tomorrow’s final is once more billed as a showdown between the Numbers One and Two teams in the division and is expected to live up to its expectations. Toronto Blizzards, which played unbeaten during the regular season, ended with 39 points while GTA Storm placed second with 33. It should however be noted that the two powerhouses didn’t meet since their opening game of the season suffered a washout.

GTA Storm’s only defeat came at the hands of Ramblers Rampage when their bowlers were pulverized by a magnificent century by Narendra Buchana who slammed an incredible 15 sixes and two fours in an unbeaten 114.
GTA Storm has since avenged that defeat, whipping the same opponents in last Saturday’s semi-final while Toronto Blizzards got the better of Canadian Legends.

GTA Storm also registered a thrilling five-wicket win over Toronto Blizzards, winning a close encounter with two balls to spare to capture the Canada Cup Over-50 title two weekends ago.
One of the heroes of that victory, Ramo Malone, is however not eligible to play in tomorrow’s final since he didn’t represent GTA Storm during the regular season. However, opener Uniss Yusuf, who was not part of last year’s winning team, will bolster the GTA batting lineup.
Usuff, who returned to Toronto after a three-year absence, has been in sublime form in the three regular season matches he has played in, registering undefeated scores of 94, 102 and 89. He followed this up by hitting 52 in last Saturday’s semi-final. Skipper Troy Gobin leads the GTA Storm batting with 342 runs and is expected to get valuable support from Ian “Russian” Baldeo, Richard Driffield, Jai Singh, Jito Narine and Ken Itwaru, who was the Most Valuable Player (MVP) in last year’s final.

Driffield, who bowled a masterful spell in the Canada Cup final, grabbing four for 11, will once more spearhead the GTA Storm attack with the likes of Gobin, Jerry Brittania, Itwaru and Gavin Glasgow providing backup.

A notable change in Toronto Blizzards lineup for the 2024 season is the inclusion of top all-rounder Mahendranauth “Bobby” Parasnauth who also took over the captaincy role. The batting once again hinges around the likes of the dynamic Sunil Dhaniram, who recently copped the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award for his brilliant batting in the Canada Cup, Shiv Seeram, Jesh Parasnauth, Jaimini Singh, Desmond Chumney and Mohan Harihar.

Parasnauth will also lead the bowling attack with support from quickie Avinash Singh, Jesh Parasnauth, Wallie Bacchus and Lal “Dingo” Singh.
The action gets underway at 13:30 hrs and a huge crowd is expected to grace the final. (Frederick Halley)