TCC Taped Ball Premier Tournament Spring 2016, R2CC Winners, ECC Runners up

HOUSTON: R2CC won the TCC Taped Ball Premier League Spring 2016 tournament defeating ECC by three wickets in a thrilling encounter between two time winner ECC playing against the first time finalist R2CC. Both teams had an excellent run to the final, losing only two games each, in the process. The Premier League tournament was a highly competitive one featuring 14 participating teams from Division 1.

On a beautiful Saturday morning, R2CC won the toss and opted to field first as they had done throughout the knockout games. R2CC bowlers started off well with a good first couple of overs, but without any wickets. ECC openers then started to open up and scored quickly in the next few overs. R2CC picked up wickets at regular intervals and kept a check on the momentum. After 10 overs the score was 67 with the loss of 3 wickets. ECC batsmen picked up the tempo with Sandeep scoring a blistering 58. R2CC got a big break through Saif who picked up the wicket of Sandeep. ECC kept scoring freely thru Ashok (20), Kiran (18) and Avinash (14) and were 127 at the end of 17th over ready for the big charge. Excellent death bowling by R2CC restricted ECC to 143 which was still competitive score to chase in a final. For R2CC, Saif and Deep took two wickets each and were supported by Vineet and Gurpreet with one wicket each.

The game was in the balance at the inning break with both teams having a chance to win. R2CC openers, Kushal (28), Rajiv (17) started confidently scoring 32 of the first four overs without the loss of any wickets. In the next 6 overs, ECC gave 31 runs and picked up 3 wickets. At the end of 10 overs, R2CC were 63/3 requiring 8 runs an over in the last ten. ECC picked up three quick wickets (Kiran taking two of them) and were in control of the game with an asking rate of more than 8 with 7 overs to go and with two new batsmen Saif and Deep at the crease. But the duo of Saif with a calm head and Deep with an attacking game changed the course of the game. It came down to 27 runs from the last four overs. Deep (23) was picked up by Kiran giving a last of hope to ECC. Pranav joined Saif and played sensible cricket to take R2CC to victory. Saif started sensibly and played aggressively later to finish unbeaten on a winning score of 35. Pranav was not out on 14. For ECC, Shankar and Kiran picket up 3 wickets each while Vishal ended with one wicket. This game was truly worthy of a final with fortunes swinging back and forth multiple times in the game. R2CC overcame a tough opposition in ECC, in a keenly contested encounter to lift their first TCC championship trophy. The game had high quality umpiring by Houston Titans.

The game was followed by a well-organized prize distribution ceremony arranged by TCC. TCC Senior member Roshan Ngangom graced the occasion as chief guest. He was presented with a bouquet by TCC and was lauded for his contribution and support to cricket in Houston. Jagadish Biradar, the organizer of the tournament coordinated the presentation ceremony.

Rajdeep Das, the captain of Right to Cricket Club (R2CC) was presented with the championship trophy and Ashok, the captain of ECC was presented with the runners up trophy. Man of the match for the finals was Saif Thobhani from R2CC for his excellent bowling spell and match-winning performance with the bat.

Ashwin Tandon from Cougars won the Best Batsman trophy with 302 runs. Avinash Peteraj from ECC team won the Best Bowler trophy with 18 wickets. Gihan Fernando from SLCC team won the Best All-rounder trophy with 159 runs and 9 wickets. Anurag from R2CC and Kiran from ECC were presented with Man of the Match for semifinals.