STYX Cricket Club won the TCC championship after a hard-fought tournament. CFCC who made it to the final for the second successive time were the runners up. This is the second time STYX has won the championship, having won it for the first time back in 2019. STYX had to take the hard road, being at the bottom of the table, and had to play against the top teams at every playoff stage. On the morning of April 09 2022, STYX won the toss and elected to bat. STYX openers Raj Nair (23) and Siddhesh Jagushte (35) safely navigated the opening bowling attack with a solid opening partnership of 53 runs in about 8 overs, providing the great start the team needed in a high stakes game. Coming in next, Debasish Das (21) kept the momentum going with a 31 run partnership taking the team to 84/2 in 12 overs. Siddhesh fell shortly after, but Raj Singh (27) and Aveg Kadian (30) stepped up the attack after that with a game changing 54 run partnership, at a strike rate of almost 150 each. This helped STYX reach a total of 157 setting an imposing total for CFCC to chase down.
STYX bowling attack had been performing exceptionally well in recent times, and chasing 157 against this attack was a huge challenge from the get go. CFCC openers started cautiously but Sunny Nadeem struck in his first over to remove Sasidhar Valluru (7) at a score of 15/1. Both Raj Nair and Sunny delivered a tight opening spell leaving CFCC at 24/1 after the first 4 overs. The first change attack continued relentlessly with Sheryar Siddiqui’s fiery pace, conceding only 4 runs in his first over, and then the sharp and accurate bowling of Dharmesh Patel who removed 2 wickets in his first over including that of the opener Mithun Reddy (15). This left CFCC in a spot of bother at 29/3 at the end of 6 overs. Yesu Seelam settled in and tried to build partnerships, but Aveg Kadian’s introduction to the bowling attack turned the tables completely. Aveg got Yesu’s wicket and that of 3 other CFCC batters completing his spell with 4 wickets for 21 runs in his 4 overs. Dharmesh finished with 4 wickets also, giving only 11 runs in his 4 overs. Sheryar, Varun Jaiswal and Himanshu Patel kept a tight lid on the runs and never let CFCC break free. Notable to mention the incredible work behind the stumps by STYX keeper Devjit Biswas who ended up with 7 dismissals. In the end, the tight spells with regular wickets falling meant CFCC had their work cut out. In the end they ended up with 105/9 in their 20 overs losing the finals by 52 runs. Aveg Kadian was awarded man of the match award for his 30 (19) runs and bowling figures of 4/21 in 4 overs.
The game was followed by a well-managed presentation ceremony organized by Jagdish Biradar. Cameron Best, brother of Tony Best was the Chief Guest and Nanda Kumar, president of TCC was also present. TCC presented a memento to Cameron in remembrance of Tony Best and his services to Cricket in Houston.
Memento for Tony Best
Debasish Das, the captain of STYX was handed over the winner’s trophy and the runners up trophy was handed over to captain of CFCC Prabhakar Thota. Dharmesh from STYX was the MVP for the tournament. Tournament awards were also handed over. Shiva from HCCC was the best batsman with 204 runs, Avinash from Kastech Kings was the best bowler with 21 wickets, Sunil from 300s with 21 dismissals was the best wicket keeper, Amit from 300s was the best allrounder with 150 runs and 14 wickets. Special awards were given to Darshan from Gladiators and Yesu from CFCC for centuries and Vivek from Javelinas-Genx and Imran from BTH for Hat tricks.
Online scorecard is at: https://www.cricclubs.com/3T/fullScorecard.do?matchId=1044&clubId=8675 and
YouTube video is at: https://youtu.be/fqe0qsu4t4E
Winners STYX are as below
Runners up CFCC are as below
The Championship trophy for the final was dedicated to Tony Best who left us. He has done so much for Cricket in Houston.
The runners up trophy was dedicated to Sunny Dhillon from BHCC who left us in an unfortunate accident.
