TCC Taped Ball Premier Tournament Spring 2018 Cougars Winners, STYX Runners up

HOUSTON: Cougars Cricket Club celebrated their 10th year of TCC TB legacy by winning their 6th and most memorable TCC championship trophy by defeating STYX by 49 runs to be crowned as Champions of TCC Taped Ball Premier Tournament Spring 2018 played amongst top 14 division 1 teams. Cougars team has been having a memorable run in TCC as this was their 3rd Final in last 4 tournaments and 10th Final overall.  Cougars’ bowlers were in hot form during the knockouts as they got the teams all out for less than 87 in quarters, semis and finals. STYX had a great tournament ending up as Runners up in their first final appearance in TCC taped ball tournament.

On a beautiful Saturday morning on 30 June 2017, Cougars won the toss and elected to bat first. Their openers Rahil Shah and Ashwin Tandon gave a good start as they reached 25-0 at the end of 5 overs. Raj Nair stuck couple of key blows with wickets of Ashwin and Chaitanya as Cougars reached 66-2 at the end of 10 overs. Styx bowlers kept on taking regular wickets in the next half to keep Cougars scoring in check. Rahil held one end with a brilliant 45 and Arun chipped in with a crucial knock of 20. Subbu and Rajesh made useful contributions of 10 runs each in the lower order.  Cougars scored a competitive total of 136 in their 20 overs with Rahil (45), Arun (20), Ashwin (15) and Chaitanya (15) being the main scorers.  Mudit, Raj Singh and Raj Nair were pick of the bowlers for Styx with 2 wickets each.

With 137 to chase, STYX tried to start aggressively against a bowling line up in top form but lost both their openers within first 4 overs including wicket of their inform batsman Adi which put Styx on back foot. Even though two of Cougars’ main bowlers Sarava and Rahil got injured while batting and were unable to bowl, their backup bowlers Arun and Prashant supported their main bowlers (Subbu, Krishna and Rajesh) very well as Styx batsmen found scoring very hard and once Raj Singh and Raj Nair were out by 11th over, Styx chase lost its steam and were bundled out for 87 in 19th over as Cougars became the champions amid joyous celebrations lifting the cup for the 6th time. Kalesh was the top scorer for Styx with score of 17 supported by Raj (10) and Vamsi (12). For Cougars, Subbu, Rajesh, Arun and Krishna were the pick of the bowlers with 2 wickets each.

The game was followed by a well-organized prize distribution ceremony arranged by TCC. TCC and teams were honored to have Mr. Cameron Best as the chief guest. He is a regular in officiating all types of cricket matches and is HCL treasurer from the last 15 years He was felicitated by TCC with a plaque for his contribution to cricket in Houston. He spoke about the need to play the game in the spirit of cricket and the importance of respecting the umpires. Jagadish Biradar, the organizer for TCC Taped Ball tournament coordinated the presentation ceremony.

Ashwin Tandon, the captain of Cougars Cricket Club was presented with the championship trophy and Kalesh, the captain of Styx was presented with the runners up trophy. The players of the Winners and Runners up teams up received individual trophies. Man of the match for the final was Rahil Shah from Cougars for his brilliant knock of 45.

Rajdeep Das from R2CC won the best batsman trophy for scoring 287 runs. Best Bowler trophy was shared by Anil Gorsipati and Manikanth Seethamraju, both from CJCC, taking 14 wickets each. Rajdeep Das from R2CC won the Best all-rounder trophy scoring 280 runs and 10 wickets. Vinodh Vemireddy from CJCC won the best wicket keeper trophy for 21 catches.