The team have won both of their games against their US competitors.

The Youth Scholarship team was made up of young players from all over the USA. It is a part of The Youth Cricket Scholarship which was founded from a development program created in 2015 in Dallas, Texas by MoneyGram employee Praful Mainker. He has led the development of Youth Cricket in Dallas Fort-Worth area and beyond over last several years.

The young team from the USA fought hard in both the games, often having the opposition down 6 or 7 wickets under 80 runs. The skills and determination of the players, most of whom were just around 16 years old, and had little or no experience playing on turf wickets, were widely appreciated by opponent players and coaches. The players were able to understand what areas to focus on for further improvement, and are determined to come back stronger next time.

Sydney Thunder community rookie and MoneyGram Scholarship recipient Jason Sangha was on hand to help the young American team who made sure to learn as much as they could from the up and coming star.

For first of the two games, the Thunder Nation Cup All Stars won the toss and batted first and posted 140 off their 20 overs with Sutha Thanabalasingam top scoring with 62 runs. He was well supported in the lower order by Labib Mahmud 20 and Tariq Viswasam 21.

The MoneyGram Thunder Nation Cup All-stars bowled well on a tricky pitch. The MoneyGram Youth Scholarships team struggled with the great line and length bowled by the MoneyGram Thunder All Stars. They lost their final wicket for a total of 52 runs. Bilal Quershi was the stand out with the ball with figures of 4/8 off his 4 overs.

Game two got underway with the Thunder Nation Cup All Stars team again winning the toss and batted first again, posting 152 off their 20 overs with Kritan Tamraker top scoring with 38 runs. The TNC All Stars lost wickets at regular intervals with all players chipping in to reach a very competitive 150 runs in 20 overs.

The MoneyGram Academy team toiled hard in their second effort but still fell short thanks to some good bowling by BBL04 Sydney Thunder community rookie Hameed Kherkhah and Bilial Quershi.

Sydney Thunder spokesperson stated the tournament was “first of its kind and huge step in the right direction for developing nations of cricket”.

“We are thrilled to extend the collaboration that enabled us to bring young and talented players from the Youth Cricket Academy, based at Dallasall over to Australia. Both teams performed exceptionally well and it was a real pleasure to cheer for them at the stadium. I’m sure players benefited from this event and for the US colleagues it was a unique opportunity to meet MoneyGram’s scholar Jason Sangha who shared his cricket tips. For sure this will help them to get even more points in the upcoming matches,” said Nidhi Kataria, Marketing Manager – Australia & Oceania at MoneyGram.