TCC Taped Ball Professional Tournament Spring 2018, Genx Winner, CFCC Runner up
Winners Genx with umpires of the game, Tony and Kushal.
HOUSTON: Genx won their 2nd championship title in TCC Tapped Ball Tournament in professional division on June 23 by defeating CFCC by 25 runs in a low scoring yet an enthralling final. For CFCC, this was their maiden final and they put on a tough fight to get close to their maiden title.
CFCC won the toss and asked Genx to bat first on a ground with slow outfield and marginally overcast conditions.
The opening duo of Rahul and Saketh started steadily but did not provide best of the starts and very soon it was 18/1 in 3 overs. The outfield was very slow and to score boundaries became very difficult and it was 29/1 in 5 overs. From one end Saketh (19) played a steady innings but the other end kept loosing wickets in quick succession and Genx were 52/4 after 10 overs. Soon after the drinks break Kalyan came up with the blitz but it too didn’t last long and CFCC started to tighten their hold on the game with the score at 86/8 in 16 overs. Rajesh(12) and Naresh(9) had a mini cameo partnership of 21 runs in 2 overs to pull the team to a defendable total of 112 in 20 overs.
CFCC bowled exceedingly well taking the best advantage of the game day conditions. Abhishek and Sankirth took two wickets each whereas the rest of the bowlers took a wicket a piece.
Runners up CFCC with umpires of the game, Tony and Kushal.
Believing 113 as a defendable target and with a positive outlook Naresh and Naveen opened the bowling attack for Genx. CFCC started off cautiously too but wicket fall seemed inevitable. CFCC lost both their openers Sasi (6) and Karthik in quick succession. Naveen and Naresh both held their line of attack, crisp and precise and with excellent support from Vivek, the next two batsmen had to follow the openers. CFCC was in deep trouble with 18/4 in 5 overs. Mujahed (12) and Raj (10) seemed to take control of things by easily rotating the strike in between. Ramsai put up a beautiful delivery to get a nick from Mujahed to the wicket keeper. CFCC were 45/5 in 10 overs before the drinks break and needed 68 runs in 60 balls with 5 wickets in hand. The target seemed tough at this point with required rate steadily climbing up. CFCC’s depth in the batting lineup did not help and they only managed to add 29 runs in next 6 overs to get to 74/8 in 16 overs. From there, chances to win for CFCC faded away and Genx was within striking distance of a win. Sankirth ( 17*) holding up one end did not help and CFCC collapsed to a total of 87/10. A perfect bowling attack and flawless fielding lead Genx to clinch its second championship title in professional Divn. Navin took 4 wickets and Vivek took 3 wickets. The game had excellent umpiring by Kushal and Tony.
The game was followed by a well-organized prize distribution ceremony arranged by TCC. Tony Best, one of the umpires gave away the awards. Jagadish Biradar, the organizer for TCC Taped Ball tournament coordinated the presentation ceremony.
Pavan Soodireddy, Captain of Genx was presented with the championship trophy and Prabhakar Thota, captain of CFCC was presented with the runner up trophy. The players of the winning team received individual trophies and runner up team received medals. Man of the match for the final was awarded to Naveen Ramalingam from Genx for his excellent bowling performance to pick 4 wickets.
Nandu Jalumuri from BBCC won the best batsman trophy for scoring 204 runs. Salman Farouqi from Kings XI won the best bowler for picking 16 wickets, Chaitanya Kalapala from BCC Legends won the best all-rounder for scoring 167 runs and picking 12 wickets, Navin Negi from LSCC won the best wicket keeper for 19 dismissals and special award was given to Sankirth Bathula from CFCC for scoring a century.