New Castle vs. Knights
New Castle knows how to win games, no matter what situation they are
in. Invariable, someone or the other rises to the occasion and guides
the team to victory and fortunately for New Castle, the team has
plenty of match-winners. Ahsan and Himanshu are exciting stroke makers
whereas Kiran brings solidity to the middle order. Nabeel has found
oomph to his bowling this season and along with Baba and Ganti provide
the team with variety in the bowling attack. On the contrary, Knights
rely heavily on the shoulders of Gunaratne brothers. Chaminda is one
of the better batsmen around and has the ability to take on the
challenge alone; but he needs to be supported well by others. Kiran
Paruchuri, a new face in the team, and Ravi are good bowlers and will
be interesting to see how they bowl to the New Castle batsmen.
Nonetheless, it will be an exciting contest.
Key Players: Kiran Patel and Chaminda
Prediction: New Castle advances to the semis

Haverford vs. BOCC
This is ‘the game’ in quarter finals that I am most eager to watch.
Haverford has been all about Sohail Iqbal and why shouldn’t it be. He
has been arguable the best batsmen in the league and has piled runs
with relentless will. Anthony Williams seems to be in a good form with
the bat and these two have carried Haverford’s batting this season.
Santosh Anthony is a compact batsman and I have enjoyed watching him
bat before but he does not seem to be clicking this year. Kamran Khan
and Ali Bukhari are wily bowlers and seem to get even better with
their age. However, the lack of depth in batting and bowling might be
a bother for Haverford. BOCC are equipped with Raj, Negi, Sunil, John
and Shariq in their batting department and look really solid. Kaleem,
Tahir and Amim are equally good bowlers. Despite having such good
players in the team, one of the major concerns with BOCC is their
performance in key fixtures. They have found it difficult to advance
beyond semi finals and I think this adds spice to the contest. BOCC
have a point to prove and I am sure thy will have all their guns
loaded to fire at the right time.
Key Players: Sohail Iqbal and Raj/Negi
Prediction: This one is a tough one for me and I am no able to make up
my mind. I think BOCC will overcome all the challenges and advance to
semis.

Manoj Charati

The 2010 regular season of PCL is now a history and the 8 teams that have been consistently performing well throughout the season have deserved to be in the playoffs. My heartiest congratulations to all the top 8 teams, but the job is half done. Now is the real time to rise and shine, both as a team and as an individual, and show the cricketing junta in the Philadelphia area that you deserve to be crowned as PCL Champs 2010. As I am writing this blog and pinning down my predictions for the playoffs, I am feeling the excitement and eagerly looking forward to this weekend’s match ups. The views presented here are solely my predictions and should not be taken personally by any readers.

Liberty vs. North East
These two teams are the most exciting teams in PCL and I am hoping that the weekend kicks off with a BANG! Both teams play fearless cricket and we are all in for a treat. With the likes of Quason, Walton, Watson and Graves in the batting and Hollywood and Plummer in the bowling, Liberty are a well balanced team. However, a lot rides on Quason’s shoulders. On his day he can demoralize any team and make you feel miserable. North East, I am sure, is prepared for this challenge and is by far the best team that can match shoulders with Liberty. Their bowling has been impressive with Yasir and Zishan (Afridi) topping the wickets tally and batting has been mostly a team effort with Rishi, Usman, Yasir and Zishan sharing the load. Yasir with his sharp pace while bowling and big hitting in the middle order is a key player for North East. However, North East has been inconsistent throughout the season.
Key Players: Quason Alfred and Yasir Sheikh/Zisham Umar
Prediction: I expect Liberty to win a close fought contest

Collegeville vs. Prior
I would like to call them as the gentlemen team of PCL; very nice guys and equally good cricketers. I have always enjoyed playing against them and looking forward to the Sundays match-up between the two. Prior had a great start to the season and looked unbeatable but lost their way somewhere in the middle. Rafiq, Dil, Rajash and Amar are all good with the bat and can play long innings and batting is clearly Prior’s strength. Vishnu is by far their best bowler and has found little support from others. Collegeville, on the other hand, can turn it around both with their batting as well as bowling. Chandan, Kanishka, Charlie and Sumeet are treat to watch in the top-order and have scored big hundreds during the regular season and are very well supported by Amri and Pramod in the bowling department. I expect this to be a high scoring contest and hoping to see another hundred being scored by someone….
Key Players: Rafiq and Charlie
Prediction: Collegeville dominates with the bat and ball

More to follow…

Manoj Charati
Blue Hens Cricket Club

• Host team to put and remove the matting.
• Host team is responsible to get the nails, hammer, wickets, bails, chalks, inner and outer cones.
• Before the start of second innings, the batting team will have the choice to tighten the matting and roll the pitch. However, rolling and tightening of the pitch/matting will be the responsiblity of the batting team regardless if they are the hosting team or not. 
• The umpire will ensure tha matting remains tight throughout the match. 
• Make sure to bring the official league balls and carbon copy score book for the games.
• Each team is responsible for their own drinks and refreshments
• Two umpires will be provided for each play-off games. Teams are required to pay regular umpiring fee to each umpire.
• Minimum 3 games reuired for play-off qualification. Please see by-laws for clarification.
• Players are required to wear proper cricketing attire. Players are encouraged to wear PCL logo shirts. No t-shirts or random white clothing. Umpires will ensure that no player will be on the field without cricketing attire. NO EXCUSES!!
• Bring your supporters, chairs and mat! Good luck to all the teams!

Emerging young team of PCL have produce some exciting young talent in this area which forced the Atlantic under 19 selector to invite them and show their talent. Raj Amin along with Krushit patel of Stumperz cricket team were invited by the selectors to try out for Atlantic region under 19 in Watsessing park on the 31st of July. Raj showed his classy batting skills and was also handful behind the wicket with the gloves. Krushit, on the other hand, bowled perfect line and length without giving any runs and did his part with the bat too.

Finally, Raj Amin was selected to represent Atlantic Division Under 19 for the upcoming tournament in Connecticut. Kalim Ahmed of BOCC was also selected. It is an honour for PCL to congratulate the young talent and encourage others in this area to compete at this level and show their best to get to the top.

Website is currently experiencing some problems. We are still awaiting a fix for the issue. It will be up shortly.

 

Mobil Cricket Club suspended for the entire season due to non-payment of fines. All teams that have not played against Mobil will be given a win. Please email the name of 11 players to Sidrah Riaz. 
 

Suspended player section has been updated. Primary contacts and Umpires please check the updated list.

• Please follow the website for news and updates.
• In case you are not sure of any by-law then please read it clearly.
• League's primary source of communication is through emails. Only primary and secondary contact should send out emails. Emails from others will not be responded.  
• Phone calls only in case of urgency.

• Highlights should be brief and simple.
• All the online scoresheet should be complete including the names of players who did not bat.
• Umpires to make sure that the scoresheet given by the teams has the names clearly written. If it is not readable then verify at the ground and do not guess any names. However, it is the responsibility of the team to maintain the proper and complete scoring and not creating a mess for the umpire.
• Do not write anything on Microsoft Word and paste it on the scoresheet. This messes the formatting.
• Teams are required to register the players as per the by-laws (Before 9:00 am game day). Not following this will result in action taken as per by-law.  NO EXCUSES
• Man of the Match names have to be spelt out correctly.
• Inappropriate cricket attire is not allowed. (White Cricket shirt with collar and white trousers).
• Host teams are to provide clean and cold drinking water to the guest team.
• Before the toss happens, each captain should give the full names of the playing 11 to the umpires. and another to each other. At that point umpires have to ask the team if the players have been registered or not.
• Umpire must enter the highlights by 9:00 am Monday morning. Scoresheets to be completed by Friday midnight. Fines for not following the time.
• Teams required to visit the schedule page by Friday 4:00 to get the contact info of the umpire. In case, the umpire doesn't show up on the ground then call the umpire first incase you don't get any reply then call the primary and secondary contacts of the club sending the umpire and if you don't get any answer from the club contacts then call the umpiring director. Keep in mind umpiring director is the last to be called.
• In case of rain, team primary contacts to decide and inform the umpire and Director Umpiring if the game is rained-off.
• In case of forfeiting a game, the club should notify the umpire, the opponent team league contacts and the umpiring director at-least 2 hours before the game start time.

Team Primary Contacts are requested to login and check out the suspended player list. Teams are required to follow what's listed in the section. Action will be taken per by-laws if these players are included in the team. All the teams and umpires should look this section prior to every game and make sure no one from this list partcipates in PCL games. This page will be updated periodically.