Cougars won the TCC Taped Ball Fall 2013 tournament defeating Sri Lanka Cricket Club (SLCC) by 38 runs. It was a well-deserved win for Cougars who last won the tournament in 2008 and had ended up as runners up in 2010. The tournament was a highly competitive one featuring 15 participating teams. It was the third consecutive appearance in the final for SLCC.
On a beautiful Saturday morning with excellent weather for cricket (26th Oct 2013), Cougars won the toss and opted to bat first. Their openers Ashwin and Santosh gave a good start with a partnership of 51 runs and scoring well over 6 runs per over. SLCC had to turn on to their spinners Gihan and Thilan. Thilan got the first breakthrough having Santosh (14) caught and bowled. Ashwin was in great form leaving the good deliveries and punishing the bad deliveries by scoring boundaries all around the ground which helped Cougars reach 66-1 at ten overs break. Ashwin and Karthik contributed to another good partnership of 52 runs for the second wicket. SLCC bowlers kept the batsmen in check and Cougars were not able to run away with the game even though they had wickets in hand. Ruben came in and picked up a couple of wickets. Swaroop changed all of that with a lovely cameo in the last 4 overs scoring 33 not out of 20 balls. Ashwin played a captain’s knock holding the innings from one end top scoring with 60 runs before getting out in 18th over. Cougars scored a strong total of 148-3 in 20 overs. Gihan was the most economical bowler with spell of 4-0-18-0. Cougars batting was helped by dropped catches by SLCC.
Faced with a tough task of chasing a big total, SLCC got off to a poor start losing a wicket in the first over. They kept loosing wickets at regular intervals and were 18-3 in fist 4 overs as opening bowlers Santosh and Abhishek maintained pressure through good line and length. Udesh was run out due to a mix-up and that did not help SLCC. Rajesh continued his great bowling form throughout the knock outs and took the very important wicket of Ranil just before the 10 over break. At the end of 10 overs, the score was 53-5. Cougars kept chipping away with wickets as required rate crept up to 10+. All hopes of SLCC chase ended in the 14th over when Thilan fell to a brilliant running catch by Ashwin after scoring 18 runs. Santosh was the pick of the bowlers with spell of 4-0-21-4 as SLCC were all out for 110 in 19 overs when Pavan took the last wicket starting wild celebrations amongst the Cougars team who became TCC champions after a gap of 5 years inspite of being one of the most consistent teams throughout last 3 years. The game had high quality umpiring from Jagadish from TCC and Ketan from Strikers. Cougars bowlers were supported by excellent fielding by the team and they took all the catches that came their way. Cougars had perfect game with the team clicking in batting, bowling and fielding.
The game was followed by a well-organized prize distribution ceremony arranged by TCC. The presentation party had Krishna Shikaram, Vice President for TCC as the chief guest, TCC President Nanda Kumar, TCC Treasurer Anand Sampath and TCC cricket team members (Kiran, Swaroop and Manas). Jagadish Biradar, organizer for TCC Taped Ball tournament coordinated the presentation ceremony. Krishna was presented with a plaque by Nanda for his contribution to cricket in Houston.
Ashwin, the captain of Cougars was presented with the championship trophy and Udesh, 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 Ashwin from Cougars for a match winning performance of 60 runs and 2 important catches.
Ashwin from Cougars won the Best Batsman trophy with 303 runs. Johnson from RCC won the Best Bowler trophy with 20 wickets. Aveg from Grady won the Best All Rounder trophy with 162 runs and 17 wickets. Trophies were also given to the man of the match for Semi Finals and Quarter Finals. Pavan from Cougars and Arjuna from SLCC were the recipients of the man of the match for Semi Finals. Subodh from Chargers, Abhishek from Cougars, Pervinder from Grady and Dushan from SLCC were the recipients of the man of the match for Quarter Finals. Thilan from SLCC was given a special award for scoring 94 not out in one of the first round matches.