Drona Stormers pushed the Division B final to the very last wicket before Edison Cricket Club snatched it in the 39th over — and earned promotion to Division A anyway. Across the academy, seven fall league sides played two rounds of fixtures, headlined by a maiden century in a 243-run Quasars chase.
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September ran two rounds of NJ fall league fixtures across seven Drona sides, plus separate MCL F40 and MCL Premier T20 campaigns for the Stormers. The headline came from the top: Stormers pushed the MCL F40 Division B final to the final over before falling by a single wicket — and were promoted to Division A regardless. Down in the fall league, Quasars' Faheem Manikindi struck a maiden unbeaten century to run down 243 against Delhi Capitals Dominators, the standout individual innings of the month. Five Drona U11s took their talents outside the academy this month too, called up to represent Team New York at the USAC 2026 Northeast Region championship. New this issue: a Player of the Month feature on Preet Patel, the Most Dependable Player of the Season, and a Wall of Honor rounding up every century, fifty and three-wicket haul from across the academy.
Drona Stormers posted 163, dismissed in the 34th over, then took Edison Cricket Club (NJ Blackcaps) to the very last wicket of a 40-over final before falling one short.
Drona Stormers were bowled out for 163 in 33.2 overs. Santy's 41 off 28 balls gave the innings its backbone, including a 46-run third-wicket stand with Preet Patel, the biggest of the innings. Patel batted through to the end, unbeaten on 39, while Anant Krishna Nadathur added a quick 30 off 24 and Raghav Srivastava's 12 helped add 21 for the last wicket.
Edison made the chase look easy at first: Dhwanit Gajjar (44) and Jainam Gandhi (27) put on 81 for the first wicket. The Stormers hit back, taking four wickets for 10 runs to leave Edison 91/5, with Rohan Kommareddy's 3/23 keeping up the pressure. Vatsal and Parth steadied things with 42 for the sixth wicket, and Edison crept to 163/9. The last pair needed one run, and the partnership chart shows neither batter scored it off the bat. Gandhi's 29 earned Player of the Match.
Edison took the title, but the run to the final earned the Stormers promotion to Division A for summer 2027.
EDISON CC CAPTAIN, TO COACH SANTY"Hi Santy bhai, I want to congratulate you and Drona boys for playing such exceptional cricket. Trust me when I say this, I have played against so many academy teams but by far, Drona is the most competitive and the most complete team.
These boys have a big potential so please guide them in the right direction as you have been doing. Hard luck today but good luck for future seasons."
COACH SANTY, TO THE STORMERS FAMILYWinning — or not winning — is one thing. But earning the respect from the Championship-winning team in this manner is an achievement of an altogether different significance. It reflects the meaningful development, progress and positive direction of the Drona boys' cricketing journey.
Congratulations — you have officially made it into Division A when we resume 40-overs cricket in summer 2027. Tremendous progress and heart-warming performances by every single athlete. Enjoy this, it's your moment.
Full credit to the Stormers' parents and athletes, whose commitment made the promotion possible, with the continued support of academy management.
Both panels share one scale. Edison's 81-run opening stand was the largest of the match; the Stormers' biggest was 46, between Santy and Preet Patel.
Fourteen matches, one final heartbreak, and a promotion. The full-season leaderboard behind the Stormers' rise.
Adhiran Karthikraja led the club across every discipline — 476 runs, 425 bowling points and 1,056 total points on the season. Preet Patel topped the fielding charts with 12 dismissals (10 catches, 1 run-out, 1 assist).
Drona Stormers also field a side in the MCL Premier T20 series — a separate competition from the 40-over F40 campaign. After an opening loss to TekniQi Warriors, the Stormers levelled the series with a four-wicket chase down of NJ Panthers.
Six different Stormers bowlers shared the wickets against NJ Panthers — Anant Nadathur, Keshav Raval, Aaditva Agrawal, Udayan Maithani, Preet Patel and Mihir Bhansali all struck once — and Preet Patel also held a catch. Stormers level the MCL Premier T20 series at 1-1; this page will keep tracking the season as results come in.
Five Drona U11s — Nidharshan Siva, Theeran Subramaniam, Aarnav Vimal, Vinayak Rane and Srikeshav Balaji — were selected to represent Team New York at the USAC 2026 Northeast Region championship. The campaign opened with a 14-run win over Connecticut at Eisenhower Park.
Nidharshan Siva opened the batting with 16, and Vinayak Rane was involved in three of the four Connecticut run-outs, with Aarnav Vimal, Theeran Subramaniam and Nidharshan Siva also in on the action. New York won the toss and elected to bat. This is the first fixture of the Northeast Regional campaign — more games follow, and this page will keep tracking the series as results come in.
Anant Krishna Nadathur and Adhiran Karthikraja made their Minor League Cricket debuts for NYC Titans, each playing one game, against The Philadelphians on Sep 26. In the Titans' dugout as head coach: Drona's own Coach Santy.
COACH SANTY · HEAD COACH, NYC TITANS"Our Drona dynamites playing Minor League Cricket this year 2026 … Proud of what these boys have gotten to be here now. Watch them live in action as the season unfolds."
Eighteen years old, Captain of the Drona Archers, and an all-rounder who “could never choose between batting and bowling.” He earns the title the hard way: by turning up, every game.
PREET PATEL“I try my best to be there for the team when they need it and just give it my all.”
The Most Dependable Player of the Season on consistency, captaincy and keeping calm when it counts.
I think being consistent in cricket is the most important thing for me, in both batting and bowling. They both have their own role in the game, and I think playing consistently shows more than getting a big score in one game and then getting out for a low score in the next, or bowling really well in one game and then getting hit in the next. I try my best to be there for the team when they need it and just give it my all.
The tournament in South Africa. We played a university team, so everyone was a couple of years older than us. We were mainly an under-17 team, and four of their players were playing for South Africa's under-19 team and were now around 23 and older, so it was a big challenge. I batted from the second over until the end and scored around 48 not out off 36 balls. It wasn't easy, but I think I batted pretty well considering the level of bowling I was facing.
My dad. He sent me to the academy just to see if I would like it, and from that first day, I loved the sport. He was so supportive and never forced me to play. He always makes time to practice with me, and he never says no when it comes to cricket. I'm just grateful for him and everything he does for me.
I just like to motivate the boys and tell them that as long as you have your 100% and did all you can, that's the most important. You try your best, and all we can do is get stronger for the next game and give it our all.
I think the team now has more of a fighting spirit than before. Even if the game is not in our favor, we still fight and give it our all instead of just giving up.
I scored my first century this year, so I'm proud of that, and I took my second fifer against a strong opponent. I'm still going to keep working harder to achieve more.
It's how you deal with it. Don't show the opponent that you're stressed and tense. If you seem calm, then the opponent will take that as more pressure on them.
Keep working hard, because starting as early as you can is better for you, and just be disciplined.
Apollo opened with a narrow loss to Knight Riders Hawks, then reeled off back-to-back wins over Gameday Stars and Delhi Capitals Atomics.
Yash Nahar's unbeaten 86 powered Knight Riders Hawks home in the opener; Nidharshan Siva's 3/8 broke open the Sep 12 chase. Apollo now sit 2-1 through three rounds.
Aurora blew DreamCricket Tornado away to open the season, had a big total washed out against Parsippany, then survived a three-run scare against RRA NJ Astros.
Parsippany Generals were 17/0 chasing 119 when rain ended the Sep 12 clash. Aurora move to 2-0-1 (abandoned) through three rounds.
A complete team bowling performance dismantled FJSC Risers, but Asteroids fell just short in a one-wicket thriller a week later.
Captain Haasini Vijay top-scored with 11 in the Sep 12 chase; Shreyas Sriram (8* off 45) and Rohana Roy (1*) then saw it home. Asteroids stand 1-1 through two rounds.
A low-scoring classic saw Atlas bowl out Gameday Bears for a ten-run win, before a Sep 19 fixture against DreamCricket Whirlwind Girls was awarded to Drona by forfeit.
Atlas were bowled out for 76 themselves in 20.2 overs — but a total that looked short of competitive proved exactly enough. Viraj Chitkara (2/7) also chipped in as Bears fell to 66 all out. Atlas move to 2-0 through two rounds.
Quasars split their first two rounds, then produced the individual innings of the month: Faheem Manikindi's unbeaten 110 ran down 243 against Delhi Capitals Dominators.
Veer Saini's two-game double bookended the month — 4/13 and Player of the Match in the opening win, then an unbeaten 69 in the Sep 12 defeat. Quasars stand 2-1 through three rounds.
Voyagers routed StarSportsUS Crushers by 72 runs to open the fall season, then survived a nerve-shredding two-run finish against DreamCricket Drona Elite.
Sirakshan Gopalakrishnan's 29 and Stan Rodrigues' unbeaten 24 built the Aug 29 total; Neharika Mithun Thoppil's 47 was the platform for the Sep 12 classic. Voyagers stand 2-0 through two rounds.
Every century, half-century, three-wicket haul and standout fielding effort from across the academy this month — one page, every team.
Faheem Manikindi's maiden century leads the way, backed by Pinak Ghosh's match-winning 77* in the Stormers' MCL Premier T20 chase and two fifties from Apollo's Bezalel Dias. Eight different bowlers picked up 3+ wicket hauls across F40, T20 and the fall league. Full season fielding numbers for the Stormers appear on page 5; Vinayak Rane was involved in three of Connecticut's four run-outs in Team New York's Northeast Region opener, the standout fielding effort outside the academy.
Five stories from the international game this September, from Dubai to Delhi, Manchester, Harare and Japan.
India beat Sri Lanka by 72 runs in Dubai (183/5 to 111 all out), with Shafali Verma's 68 and four wickets from Shree Charani, for a record eighth title. The team then declined to accept the trophy from ACC president Mohsin Naqvi, delaying the presentation by more than 45 minutes.
8TH TITLEIndia won the three-match T20I series 3-0 in Delhi. In the finale Abhishek Sharma made 108 off 34 balls (9 fours, 11 sixes) in a 221/7 that Afghanistan chased down to 94 all out, a 127-run margin. Reports call it the fastest T20I hundred by a batter from a Test-playing nation.
108 (34)Jos Buttler finished the T20I series at Old Trafford with an unbeaten 62 off 32 balls, sharing an 85-run stand with Harry Brook as England chased 125 in 9.4 overs. Sonny Baker was Player of the Match with 2/17 and took six wickets across the series.
3-0Australia swept the ODI series in Zimbabwe 3-0, but the finale came down to the fifth ball of the last over. Chasing 272, Josh Inglis made 103 and Nathan Ellis hit 36* from 44, including a six off the first ball of the last over, before Australia won by one wicket. Sikandar Raza's 81* for Zimbabwe was not enough.
BY 1 WICKETIn Japan, India posted 216/3 and bowled Sri Lanka out for 69, winning the final by 147 runs. Smriti Mandhana struck 79 off 45 balls (7 sixes), Richa Ghosh added 49* off 22, and Deepti Sharma took 3 wickets. It is India's second straight Asian Games women's cricket gold.
BY 147 RUNSCompiled from match reports by Cricinfo, Al Jazeera, Yahoo Sports, Outlook India, The News Mill and AP. Scores are as reported at publication.
Twelve cricket words are hidden in the grid, running in any direction. Then see how closely you followed the month.
Seven teams, one league, a rain-delayed fall season still to be played — plus two academy trips already on the calendar for the winter.