Eldridge Cricket Club (ECC) won the TCC Taped Ball Winter 2012 tournament defeating Sri Lanka Cricket Club (SLCC) in the finals by 22 runs. It was a well-deserved win for ECC having stayed unbeaten in the entire tournament and ending with a perfect season.
On a sunny and chilly Saturday afternoon (March 2nd, 2013), ECC won the toss and elected to bat first. Openers for ECC (Sandip and George) provided a quiet yet solid start to the innings (15 runs after 3 overs) without losing a wicket. Having got their eye in, they started to accelerate with a flurry of glorious shots all around the wicket from the 4th over and the score was 79/1 at the end of 10th over having lost Sandip (35 runs) in the 8th over. After the break, ECC batsmen (George and Pankaj) continued their aggression to score as many runs as possible. George almost carried his bat through-out the innings only to get out in the 19th over and scoring 82 runs. Pankaj was not out on 34 runs. The score was 160/3 in 20 overs. Kanchana was the stand-out for SLCC bowling with the figures (3 overs, 13 runs, and 1 wicket). Sampath was consistent with his bowling as well.
Setup with a daunting task of chasing 161 to win in 20 overs, SLCC kept losing wickets at regular intervals in attempt to maintain an aggressive run rate. Praveen picked up Ranil (12) and Wickrama within the first 10 overs. SLCC required close to 10 runs an over in the last 10 overs. After the break, they started aggressively with Sujeeva and Gihan accelerating the score in the first 3-4 overs but they could not hold on for long. ECC bowlers (Venkat, Bharath, Avinash and Sankar) bowled a tidy line and picked up wickets at regular intervals. At the end of 20 overs, SLCC managed 138/9. Gihan (31 runs) and Sujeeva (24 runs) were the stand-outs for SLCC in batting. Praveen (4 overs, 26 runs, and 3 wickets) Avinash (4 overs, 21 runs, and 2 wickets) and Venkat (3 overs, 21 runs and 2 wickets) were the top performers for ECC bowling. The game had high quality umpiring from two neutral umpires Arun and Ketan.
The game was followed by a well-organized prize distribution ceremony arranged by TCC. The presentation party had Nanda Kumar, the president of TCC and HCL, Nataraja Rao, secretary for TCC and Surya Saladi, board member of TCC. The chief guest was Nanda Kumar. Jagadish Biradar, organizer for TCC Taped Ball tournament coordinated the presentation ceremony.
Venkat, the captain of ECC was presented with the championship trophy and Gihan, the captain of SLCC 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 George from ECC for a wonderful batting performance – 82 runs.
George from ECC won the Best Batsman trophy with 289 runs. Sandeep from STYX won the Best Bowler trophy with 15 wickets. Ninad from Gladiators won the Best All Rounder trophy with 179 runs and 13 wickets. Trophies were also given to the man of the match for Semi Finals and Quarter Finals. Sandip from ECC and Sampath from SLCC were the recipients of the man of the match for Semi Finals. Ram from Rattlers, Samantha from SLCC, Vijay from ECC and Ninad from Gladiators were the recipients of the man of the match for Quarter Finals. STYX was given a special award for their cricketing spirit in the Quarter-Finals.
