Cypress Super Kings (CSK) won the TCC Professional division championship by dominating the playoffs. Houston Cricket Fighters (HCF) ended up as finalists after losing to CSK by 14 runs in a closely fought game. CSK lost the toss and was asked to bat first by HCF. The openers Aravinthkumar Ganesan (27) and Madhusudhan (12) got CSK off to a rapid start racing to 36 within the 4th over. Ashwin Ravi (24) anchored the innings with yet another masterful middle order batting display. A brilliant cameo from Sriram Sureshkumar (24), solid support from Vijai Prakash (13) and excellent selfless running from the lower order batsman helped CSK reach a defendable score of 126.
After a quick start from the HCF opening batsman, the CSK bowlers simplified their game plan and stuck to a tight line and length to pull back the run rate below 6. This created a lot of pressure on the HCF batters leading to fall of wickets. Abhishek Ravi bowled an opening spell of 4 overs on the trot testing the batsman constantly and removed both the openers. The experienced Sriram Sureshkumar bowled tidily with an economy under 5 and picked up the crucial wicket of Mayur Patel to end up as the finals MVP. Saravanakumar Selvaraj, who was the pick of the bowlers on finals day, showed his class and guile to get HCF’s top batsman and prized scalp of Amit Rathod and another to finish with a brace of wickets. Karthik Bhupathy – CSK’s very own “game changer” played an instrumental part in getting 2 important wickets and bowled the difficult overs in the back end of the game. He got rid of the explosive Sunil Patel thanks to a brilliant running catch at long on by Aravinthkumar and dismissed Srini Pathala to break HCF’s resistance. Ashwin Ravi, also the TCC taped ball Spring 2022 Professional division MVP of the season, bowled aggressively through the middle and later powerplay overs to deliver the title to CSK by getting rid of 2 quick wickets of back to back deliveries in the 11th over to give CSK the upper hand in the defense of 126. There was excellent comraderie between the two teams and the game was contested in a healthy manner.
The game was followed by a well organized presentation ceremony organized by Jagadish Biradar. Dinesh Kasliwal of Team Gladiators was thanked for voluntary work on scheduling. Adithya Balasubramanian, the captain of CSK received the winner’s trophy and the runners up trophy was collected by Amit Rathod, counterpart from HCF. Sriram Sureshkumar picked up the award for MVP of the finals and Ashwin Ravi took home the coveted Player of the Series award (351 runs and 14 wickets). Other tournament awards were presented to Suyash Rai (best batsman with 266 runs), Omar Bangash (best bowler with 18 wickets), Saurabh Merai (best keeper with 35 catches), Chitrang Khatri (best all-rounder with 220 runs and 12 wickets), and special century award for Sadesh Chandana and special hat-trick award for Robin Varghese and Sagar Puri. Online scorecard: https://cricclubs.com/3T/viewScorecard.do?matchId=1190&clubId=8675
Winners CSK
Runners up HCF
Best Bowler – Omar Bangash – Champions CC – 18 wickets
Best Wicket Keeper – Saurabh Merai – Woodlands Hurricanes – 35 catches
Special Award Century – Sadesh Chandana – All Stars CC
Tournament MVP – Ashwin Ravi – CSK
