Cougars were crowned as the champions of TCC Taped Ball Fall 2019 on November 2nd 2019 defeating Styx by 8 wickets and thereby claiming their seventh TCC Taped Ball Tournament title. This was Cougars 11th appearance in finals and second against Styx in as many years and both times Cougars came out as winners. It was a highly competitive tournament played between 28 teams and both the teams came up with spirited performances in the playoffs winning some close matches to reach the finals. Cougars bowlers were in red hot form restricting teams to less than 106 throughout the knock outs
Styx won the toss on a beautiful Saturday morning and had no hesitation in electing to bat first. Cougars opening bowlers again gave a great start with Dev taking out their inform batsman Deb and Raj Nair in successive balls as Styx could score only 15-2 in first 4 power play overs. After that it was hard grind for Styx as all Cougars bowlers kept the scoring completely under control with their tight bowling and picking regular wickets. At the end of 10 overs Styx were 41 for 4 and eventually made 106 for 7 in their 20 overs thanks to a quick-fire 42 of 36 balls from Raj Singh. For Cougars Dev, Rajesh and Subbu were pick of the bowlers taking 2 wickets each and well supported by Saravana and Prashant who gave only 32 runs in their combined 8 overs . Overall it was a top-class bowling and fielding performance by Cougars keeping the pressure on the batsmen throughout the 20 overs.
With a tricky target of 107 to chase, Cougars openers Rajesh and Ashwin started well keeping the scoreboard ticking without taking any risks and hitting loose balls for boundaries as they scored 40 runs in first 5 overs taking the fight out of Styx bowlers and put pressure back on them. After the fall of Ashwin’s wicket, Subbu joined Rajesh to have another good partnership of 50 runs. Rajesh played one of the best knocks of his career anchoring the innings with a calm and composed 45 not out as Swaroop finished the chase with two successive boundaries in 15th over to complete the chase as Cougars became deserving champions amid joyous celebrations lifting the cup for the record 7th time. Rajesh (45*), Ashwin (22),Subbu (20) and Swaroop (12*) were the main scorers .
The game was followed by well-organized presentation ceremony hosted and facilitated by Jagadish Biradar of TCC. TCC was honored to have Sudheer Kannantha from Katy Youth Cricket as the Chief Guest. He spoke about the amazing growth of youth cricket in and around Houston and the need for everyone with a passion of cricket to contribute to the growth of youth cricket. He was presented with plaque in appreciation of his contribution to cricket in Houston. Dinesh from Gladiators was thanked for his voluntary contribution in scheduling the tournament. Umpires Goutham and Rakesh were presented medals. Ashwin Tandon, captain of Cougars was awarded the championship trophy and Raj Nair, captain of Styx was awarded the runners up trophy. Rajesh Pant from Cougars was awarded the man of the match for his brilliant all round performance of 45* and spell of 4-0-20-2.
Tournament awards were also presented during the presentation ceremony. Subbu from Cougars won the award for the MVP of the tournament. For Divn I, Rajendran Nair from STYX was best batsman with 316 runs, Nalith Perera from CSK and Abhijit Mehta from CSK were best bowlers with 14 wickets each. Parasu Nagendra from CSK was best allrounder with 194 runs and 10 wickets, Rex Yalavarthi from Big12 was the best wicketkeeper with 24 catches. Parth Jain from Javelinas got a special award for a hattrick. For Divn II, Navin Negi from WOMCC was best batsman with 188 runs, Kiran Mistry from Blue Knights was best bowler with 16 wickets, Neil Armstrong from HA was the best Allrounder with 105 runs and 9 wickets, Debloke Maitra from Blue Knights was the best wicketkeeper with 26 catches. Sudheer Junnathala from GBCC got a special award for a Hattrick and Navi Negi from WOMCC got a special award for century.