TCC Taped Ball Tournament Spring 2014 – Spartans Winners, HJCC Runners Up
TCC Spring 2014, Spartans Winners with Chief Guest Surya Saladi.
HOUSTON: Spartans won the TCC Taped Ball Spring 2014 tournament defeating Houston Javelinas Cricket Club (HJCC) by 57 runs and maintained their perfect record of winning the final in all of their appearances. It was a highly competitive tournament involving 15 teams.
On a day with good weather for playing cricket (06/14/2014), Spartans won the toss and elected to bat first. They had a decent start scoring 19 runs in 3 overs with Manne scoring 15 of them. Soon they lost 3 quick wickets (Manne, Jeeva and Sreeni) to Suresh and were 21/3 in 7 overs. Aradhya and Saishyam rebuilt the innings. After 10 overs, the score was 49/3. Sai’s innings (34) was full of classic off drives and Aradhya’s innings (35) consisted of a couple of big sixers. Kiran M. provided the final push with a quick fire 26 runs. Suthan, Krishna and Venky made useful contributions and the score was 141/9 after 20 overs with Spartans scoring close to 85 runs in the last 10 overs. HJCC’s bowlers started off nicely but could not control after 10 overs. Suresh (3), Divyang (2) and Yesu (2) were the main wicket takers.
Chasing 142 to win, HJCC could not score in the power play and were 12/1 (Yesu’s wicket due to a brilliant catch by Manne off the bowling of Nataraja Rao) after 6 overs due to excellent bowling by Nataraja Rao and Kiran M. Sreeni who bowled next did further damage with three quick wickets, all caught by Krishna. Saishyam and Sohail made it more difficult for HJCC with tight bowling. Wickets fell at regular intervals and Nattu and Suthan cleaned up the tail in 2-3 overs. HJCC were bowled out for 84 runs. Goutham (21), Pranav (17) and Praveen (12) were the top scorers. Nattu (4) and Sreeni (3) were the top wicket takers. The complete score card and further match details is available at: http://www.sportstatz.com/ss/web.asp?club=779&mode=100&match=19996.
TCC Spring 2014, HJCC Runners Up with Chief Guest Surya Saladi.
It was a comfortable win for Spartans who dominated all their matches in the playoff games. The game had high quality umpiring from Dhiraj and Sai from Strikers. TCC appreciates the support from Strikers for the umpiring in the finals and is thankful to Ketan and Sai for this.
The game was followed by a well-organized prize distribution ceremony arranged by TCC and attended by number of friends and family members who had come to support the teams. The presentation party had Surya Saladi, founder member and member of Board of Directors of TCC as Chief Guest, President Nanda Kumar, Vice President Krishna Shikaram, Secretary Nataraja Rao, member of Board of Directors Venky Rao and TCC cricket team member Kiran. Jagadish Biradar, organizer of TCC Taped Ball tournament coordinated the presentation ceremony. Surya Saladi was presented with a plaque by Nanda Kumar for his contribution to cricket in Houston.
Nataraja Rao, the captain of Spartans was presented with the championship trophy and Satish, the captain of HJCC was presented with the runners up trophy. The players of the winners and runners up received individual trophies. Man of the match for the finals was Nataraja Rao from Spartans for a match winning bowling performance with figures of 3.1-1-10-4.
Anil Sunke from HJCC won the Best Batsman trophy with 233 runs. Nataraja Rao from Spartans won the Best Bowler trophy with a record 22 wickets and Sujith Pasupuleti won the best All-Rounder trophy with 165 runs and 12 wickets.
Trophies were also given to the man of the match for Semi Finals and Quarter Finals. Suresh from HJCC and Sreeni from Spartans were the recipients of the man of the match for Semi Finals. Sujith from HJCC, Gihan from SLCC, Nataraja Rao from Spartans and Prashant from Thunderbolts were the recipients of the man of the match for Quarter Finals.