TCC Taped Ball Spring 2018 Professional – GenX Winners, CFCC Runners up

Genx won their 2nd championship title in TCC Tapped Ball Tournament in professional division 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 because of persistent rains for the good part of the week on 23rd June 2018.

The opening duo of Rahul and Saketh started steadily but did not provide best of the starts and the usual dominance that the team expected from them and very soon it is 18/1 in 3 overs. The outfield was very slow and to score boundaries became very difficult and it is 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 lost their crucial players with only 52 runs on board in 10 overs with the loss of 4 wickets. 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 and it was 86/8 in 16 overs. Rajesh(12) and Naresh(9) took over the responsibility to pull the team to a defendable total and scored 21 runs in the mandatory power play overs to put on 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.

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 (0) 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 outside off stump to get a nick from Mujahed and it carried to the wicket keeper. CFCC were 45/5 in 10 overs before the drinks break and need 68runs in 60balls with 5 wickets in hand. The target seemed huge at this point with required rate steadily climbing up. CFCC has a deep batting lineup but 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 slimmed away and Genx is inches away from the win. With Sriram’s wicket in 19th over and Sankirth (17*) stayed not out 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