Over four days at grounds across Texas and Georgia, more than thirty youth academies sent teams to the AMLCA Elite Jr Championship Labor Day tournament. All 180 scheduled matches were completed, spanning age groups from U11 to U18. Thirty-five players reached three figures.
Three performances stood out.
Aadya Naidu — 8 for 14
Denver Avengers won the toss and chose to bat against Seattle Supernovas in U18 Division A on September 5. The decision lasted two balls.
Aadya Naidu had Aditya Vijey caught behind with the second delivery of the match, and Denver never recovered. He removed Danish Dinesh caught, trapped Pratyush Natarajan lbw, and had Ruwayfi Ahiyan caught. Denver were 15 for 6 inside seven overs.
His final figures were eight overs, three maidens, 14 runs, eight wickets. Of the 48 balls he bowled, 44 were dots. Five of his victims were caught, two bowled, one lbw — a spell aimed relentlessly at the stumps and the edge. Four Denver batters were dismissed without scoring.
Denver were bowled out for 78 in the 21st over. Seattle chased it down in 8.5 overs for the loss of five wickets. Naidu did not bat.
Across three matches he finished as the leading wicket-taker of the entire tournament — 14 wickets at an economy rate of 2.69, ahead of every bowler across all eight divisions.
Ashwath SampathKumar — 101
Ashwath SampathKumar scored a century in U13 Division B at the AMLCA Elite Jr Championship, opening the innings after Austin Blasters batted first against AYCA Strikers at LPCL 2.
He was composed at the crease from the outset, building the innings rather than forcing the pace — 26 of his 82 deliveries went for no run — before accelerating to three figures with 17 fours and a six. His last two scoring shots were both boundaries.
It was an innings that mixed restraint with the confidence to attack when the moment called for it, the kind that takes temperament as well as preparation. On this evidence there is plenty more to come.
Austin Blasters posted 258 for 5 and won by 49 runs. Riaan Jain also reached three figures for the same side.
Aarav Patel — 245*
The highest score on the tournament leaderboard belongs to Aarav Patel of HYCC Eagles, credited with 245. HYCC Eagles were the runaway batting side of the competition, posting 506 for 1 against SKA Dallas and 410 for 1 against SKA Phoenix, winning those matches by 384 and 188 runs.
Two other Eagles batters, Ishant Biradar and Shrihan Sudireddy, are credited with 223 and 196, giving the academy three of the tournament’s largest individual scores.
The wider picture
Beyond the headline efforts, centuries came from players representing academies in Seattle, Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Denver, San Diego, Baltimore, Minnesota, the Pacific Northwest and Texas. Mahil Rameshkumar of NACA Titans took a hat-trick. Kanishk Karia of CCA Stars finished with 13 dismissals behind the stumps, including eight stumpings.
The full list of centuries, leading wicket-takers and fielding records is on our Notable Performances page.
Source and corrections
Figures are taken from scorecards and ball-by-ball commentary published by AMLCA on CricClubs. The Naidu and SampathKumar innings above are described from the ball-by-ball record of each match.
* A known issue on the scoring platform has affected some player records in this tournament. Statistics have been wiped when a match is closed, and performances reassigned so that team points calculate correctly. AMLCA has told parents it is working with CricClubs to resolve it. Ashwath SampathKumar’s innings appears in the summary table under a teammate’s name, though the ball-by-ball commentary records it correctly. Aarav Patel’s 245 appears on the batting leaderboard but is not reflected in the ball-by-ball commentary for any HYCC Eagles match, and we have not been able to verify it independently.
If you are a parent, guardian or academy and would like a name or figure corrected or removed from our coverage, email youthcricketusa@gmail.com and we will action it without question.
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