TCC Taped Ball Tournament Winter 2015: Spartans(SCG) Winners, BIG12 Runners Up

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Spartans (Winners) with Chief Guest Bilal Saeed.

HOUSTON: Spartans (SCG) won the TCC Taped Ball Winter 2015 tournament defeating Big12 by five wickets in a closely contested game. It was a well-deserved win for Spartans (SCG) who maintained a perfect record in the finals for the seventh time. Big12 had a great tournament reaching finals for the first time. The tournament was a highly competitive one featuring 23 participating teams.

On a beautiful Saturday morning, Big12 won the toss and opted to bat first in good batting conditions. Right from the onset of the game, Big12 tried to be positive and score runs freely. However, SCG bowlers stuck to the plan and got crucial wickets at every juncture to peg back Big12. At the end of 10 overs, Big 12 had scored 46 runs for the loss of 4 wickets. They were further reduced to 76 for 7 at the end of 15 overs due to some quality bowling from Sandeep, Subodh, Nattu, Mathew and Ninad. Just when it seemed Big12 would be dismissed cheaply, Adriraj from Big12 played a blinder. He was supported by Prakash. 45 runs were scored from the last five overs. In the end Big12 finished with 121 runs from 20 overs and set up a challenging total for SCG. For Big12, Adriraj scored 41 runs, and was well supported by Rex (16), Gopi (10) and Prakash (14). For SCG, Sandeep was the best bowler taking 3 wickets and was well supported by Nattu who took 2 wickets and Subodh and Mathew who took 1 wicket each.

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Big12 (Runners up) with Chief Guest Bilal Saeed.

At the end of the first innings, the momentum was clearly with Big12. Amit countered it by giving a flying start to SCG. His innings included 4 massive sixers against Big12 opening bowlers and the score was 48 runs for no loss at the end of 6 overs. After Amit got out, Big12’s bowlers struck back and slowed the scoring rate with a few quick wickets. At the end of 15 overs, the score was 84 for 4 and the winning equation was 38 runs in 30 balls. Aradhya and Mathew played sensibly with Aradhya going big with three sixers in the next 3 overs and Mathew rotating the strike to take the team home with 10 balls and 5 wickets to spare. Amit top scored with 41, Aradhya scored 38 and were well supported by Sanman (10) and Mathew (14). For Big12, Rakesh and Abhishek picked up 2 wickets each. The game had high quality umpiring from Tony and HJCC team.

The game was followed by a well-organized prize distribution ceremony arranged by TCC. The presentation party included TCC President Nanda Kumar and former HCL president Tony. Bilal Saeed (former CWCC treasurer and HCC Captain) graced the occasion as chief guest. Bilal Saeed spoke about the fun and time advantage of Taped Ball and paid rich tributes to TCC for their initiative in youth cricket.  He was felicitated by TCC President Nanda Kumar with a plaque from TCC for his contribution and support to cricket in Houston. Jagadish Biradar, organizer for TCC Taped Ball tournament coordinated the presentation ceremony.

Dinesh Kasliwal, the captain of SCG was presented with the championship trophy and Sunny Teli, the captain of Big12 was presented with the runners up trophy. The players of the winners and runners up teams received individual trophies. Man of the match for the finals was Amit from SCG for his blistering 41.

Jeffery from Titans won the Best Batsman trophy with 286 runs. Subodh from SCG won the Best Bowler trophy with 23 wickets. Gihan from SLCC won the best all-rounder trophy for scoring 144 runs and taking 16 wickets.  Mathew from SCG and Gopi from Big12 were the recipients of the man of the match for Semi Finals. Neil from Houston Arrows was given special award for taking hat-trick during the league game.