Powerstars were crowned as the champions of TCC Taped Ball Winter 2020 on March 13, 2021 defeating Cougars by 10 wickets thereby claiming their first Championship in TCC Taped Ball Tournament in their 1st final. It was a highly competitive tournament played between 24 teams.
It was a repeat of the Finals from Fall 2020 with Cougars and Powerstars (playing as CSK) clashing horns yet again – after overcoming high quality teams by the former and an unbeaten run through to the championship game by the latter setting up a tasty clash. The toss was won by Cougars on a cloudy morning, and they decided to have a bat and utilize the scorecard pressure, which they are famous for. They got off to an inauspicious start losing 2 wickets within the first 5 balls of the game, Swaroop CK to an unfortunate misunderstanding leading to a runout at the non-striker’s end and their talismanic captain Ashwin T caught behind off Sriram. The second over from Ramsai yielded more success for the Powerstars as they collected another priced scalp off Aravinth aided by a brilliant diving catch at mid-off by Arun.
Powerstars added 3 more wickets within the first 6 overs to leave Cougars rocking at 6 for 11 runs, with Sriram and Ramsai adding to their wickets tally. Then came the “la resistance” from the Subbu and Happy Singh who put on a solid 50 run partnership in a quick time spanning from the 7th to the 15th over to give Cougars a fighting chance. Subbu batted with a mix of patience and aggression to top score with 32 before being castled by Raj Nair, with Happy providing the perfect foil with a cameo of 24. After the partnership was broken by Karthik VC, the last few wickets fell quickly with Powerstars coming back into the game to take complete control with brilliance in the field from Prasanth Manne behind the stumps and Arun Sriram in the outfield. Cougars were halted for a subpar total of 77 with Sriram and Ramsai picking up 3 wickets each, supported well by Adithya who ended with 2 wickets.
In defense of their total, the usually disciplined Cougars bowling was met by a 33 minute blitzkrieg in the form of Prasanth Manne (40 not out in 28 balls) and Raj Singh (32 not out in 24 balls) to wrap up the 1st championship for Powerstars in double quick time, 12 overs and 10 wickets to spare. They played some outrageous shots attacking from ball one and put the bowlers under immense pressure. Through the entire season, the Powerstars team was impressively well lead and managed by Ashwin Ravi and Kalyan Chivukula, both kept the team hungry and inspired the team to a first ever unbeaten season in TCC. The link to the score card is https://www.cricclubs.com/3T/viewScorecard.do?matchId=659&clubId=8675 and the link to YouTube is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQZrsVjVe_8
The game was followed by a well-organized presentation ceremony hosted and facilitated by Jagadish Biradar of TCC where Ashwin Ravi, captain of Powerstars received the championship trophy and Ashwin Tandon, captain of Cougars was awarded the runners up trophy. Prasanth Manne was awarded the Finals MVP for his batting and keeping exploits on the day of the Finals. Ronald Robinson was awarded the tournament MVP from Powerstars for his all-round performances tallying up to 289 runs and 13 wickets
Tournament awards were also presented during the presentation ceremony. Hiren from JCC was best batsman with 287 runs. Ojas from BHCC was the best bowler with 17 wickets. Saad from Champions CC II was best allrounder with 137 runs and 10 wickets. Syed from Champions CC with 14 catches and 3 stumpings and Ramesh from Powerstars with 17 catches were best wicketkeepers. Special Awards for century were given to Amith from SLL, Hiren from JCC, Adriraj from Big12 and Umair from Champions CC. Venkatesh from HCCC received special award for Hat-trick.
Winners Powerstars are given below
Runners up Cougars are given below
