Another highly competitive tournament with 20 teams participating ended with the Spring Finals on 08/08/15. SLCC won the toss and elected to bat on a clear sunny day. ECC restricted SLCC to just 20 runs in the first power play period. Soon after they collected the wicket of Thilan(14), who was the top run scorer in the tournament. Ramesh(48*) and Ranil(23) put up a partnership with sensible shots. After Ranil got out caught behind, Dushan(27*) entertained with shots all around the ground. Both Ramesh and Dushan retired due to the heat in the 18th over. Gihan’s quick fire 19 elevated the final score to 150/4. Avinash and Chandu fished with the best bowling figures for ECC taking 2/26 and 1/23 respectively.
ECC got off to a slow start scoring just 18runs in the power play period. Sandip and Gautam started to build ECC run chase with some help from SLCC poor fielding efforts, scoring 66/1 in the first 10 overs. After Gautam(20) was caught behind on the first delivery after the break, Sandip kept ECC run chase within reach with scoring big shots regularly. The turning point of the game came when Dushan took the wicket of Sandip (54), and finished with 3 wickets. Bernard ended the ECC run chase taking 4 wickets for just 10 runs, and collecting his second consecutive Finals MVP award.
SLCC won by a comfortable margin of 33 runs at the end, collecting back to back championships making SLCC only the third team to accomplish this feat, joining Cougars and Spartans. The game had quality umpiring provided by Spartans club.
Complete match details are available at
http://www.sportstatz.com/ss/web.aspx?club=779&mode=100&match=29421

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. Jesal Patel was the Chief Guest. She has been a financial or insurance planning adviser serving our community for years. She is also a proud sponsor of TCC youth program this year that helps with conducting youth tournament and training programs. She can be reached out for any assistance with finance or insurance queries. Contact info @ http://www.jesalzpatel.com/ . The other members were President Nanda Kumar, Vice President Krishna Shikaram, Secretary Krishna Kasturi and Board Member Surya Saladi. Nanda Kumar coordinated the presentation ceremony. Jesal Patel was presented with a plaque by Nanda Kumar for her contribution to cricket in Houston.

Gihan Fernando, the captain of SLCC was presented with the championship trophy and Kiran Muppala, the captain of ECC 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 Bernard from SLCC for a tremendous all-around performance.
Indrasena Thilan from Big 12 won the Best Batsman trophy with 281 runs. Sunny Teli from Big 12 won the Best Bowler trophy with 14 wickets and Rajendran Nair from STYX won the best All-Rounder trophy with 170 runs and 12 wickets.
Trophies were also given to the man of the match for Semi Finals, Quarter Finals and Pre QF. Thilan from SLCC and Kiran from ECC were the recipients of MVP for Semi Finals. Ranil from SLCC, Chandu from ECC, Ganesh from STYX and Abhishek from Cougars were the recipients of the MVP for Quarter Finals. Ranil from SLCC, Gaurav from HJCC, Anurag from HICC and Bharath from STYX were the recipients of MVPs for Pre QFs. Special prizes were given to Bhaskar Saripella from Houston Arrows and Indrasena Thilan from SLCC for a century, Jayalith Kalanka from SLCC B for a Hattrick.