Triggers Cricket Club

Houston Arrows won the TCC Taped Ball Professional League Spring 2017 tournament by defeating Ball Breakers Cricket Club (BBCC) by 6 runs in a low scoring thriller. For both HA and BBCC, this was their maiden final entry. It was a well-deserved win for HA who finished second in the group. The Professional League tournament was a highly competitive one featuring 10 participating teams from Divn 2.

HA won the toss and elected to bat. BBCC bowlers (Saurabh, Vikrant and Raj) bowled to a plan and had HA down to 35/4 at the end of 6 overs. Bhushan scored briskly and hit 3 boundaries in a quick 20 before getting out. Ankur and Abinash played steady after that. The score was 51/4 after 10 overs.

After the break, Pritam joined Abinash and both of them played sensible cricket rotating the strike and combined that with a few boundaries and one six to take the score to 91/5 by 16th over. BBCC kept getting wickets at regular intervals and the score was 119/10 in 20 overs. For HA, Abinash scored 28, Pritam scored 17 and Vinod was not out on 12. For BBCC, Raj took 4 wickets and Vikrant took 3 wickets.

There was a brief shower for 20 mins during the break. It made batting difficult for BBCC to start with. BBCC started cautiously and made sure that wickets were not lost. After Rishi was out to Pritam due to a brilliant catch by Ankur, Gautam and Nandu played sensibly till the break and the score was 42/1 in 10 overs. By now the wicket was suitable for batting due to the bright sunshine that followed the shower. The stage was set for an interesting last 10 overs with BBCC requiring 78 of 60 with nine wickets in hand.

After the break, Gautam, Nandu and Amar scored briskly with boundaries and sixers to score 24 runs in the first three overs to bring the score to 66/2 in 13 overs. The brisk scoring continued till the 16th over to bring the required equation to 33 runs in 4 overs with 8 wickets in hand. Nandu got run out on 46 in the 17th over due to a brilliant effort by the wicketkeeper Ashwin and that was the turning point of the game. HA bowlers held their nerve to bring the equation to 16 runs in the final over. BBCC fell short by 6 runs with 6 wickets in hand. It was a thriller worthy of a final with both teams having a chance till the end. For BBCC, Gautam scored 24 and Amar scored 14 runs. HA bowlers (Vinod, Radhe, Neil, Abinash, Pritam and Yash) managed to keep BBCC in control even though they did not take a lot of wickets.

The game was followed by a well-organized prize distribution ceremony arranged by TCC. Jagadish Biradar, the organizer of the tournament coordinated the presentation ceremony and presented the awards.

TCC extended its warm thanks and appreciation to Dinesh Kasliwal from Gladiators for his wonderful voluntary service in the scheduling of the tournament.

Neil Armstrong, the captain of Houston Arrows was presented with the championship trophy and