Road to Finals

We started our campaign way back on 3/28 against GSCC whom we beat easily by 30 runs, just the kind-of kick-start we were looking for coming into the tournament. Next up, we beat Daredevils by 44 runs another easy win. Soon after, Xterminators (won by 2 runs) and Blitz (won by 7 wickets) got the better of us. In our first 5 games, we had a win-loss ratio of 3:2, which wasn't going to be good enough to make it to the platinum championship. In the next 3 games, we saw a different Champs, won all of our next 3 games comfortably, Legends beaten by 8 wickets, Syndicate CC beaten by 40 runs and Yuva X1 (one of the top teams in Group F) by 5 wickets. We dropped a game against Aryans, but came back strongly to get past Chargers (beaten by 20 runs) and Skiers (no.1 team in Group F) to be in top 3 of the table at the end of Round I.

In Round II, we were placed in a group with Synergy CC, Maharajas and Dazzlers. To qualify for the platinum championship, we had to win at least 2 games. Our first game was against Synergy CC, we posted a massive total of 105, Abhinandan 25(15) and defended it easily to force a massive 47-run victory. Next up, we played Maharajas, won the toss batted first, posted a score of 87, courtesy Abhinandan 32(20) and bowled them out for just 44, another massive win this time by 43 runs. At the end of 2 games, we knew we have made it to the platinum championship, but still wanted to win our last game to keep the intensity high going into the play-offs. Against Dazzlers, we batted first and scored 72, Mohit Lad top scoring with 35(44), but that wasn't enough and Dazzlers won the game in the 20th over, indeed a close game!

Having lost in the quarter finals of last year's season, our team was desperate to go out there and put together a great show in this years playoffs. We were going to play Dazzlers again in our first game of the platinum play-offs. Having lost to Dazzlers in our last Round II match, we sure wanted to get the right result this time around. Also, just before the game, our captain, Gokul, injured his shoulder during a practice session and was going to be out for 3-4 weeks, so that made us that much more determined to win this one for him.

This was an away game for us, Dazzlers won the toss and decided to bat first. They had a pretty decent start, they were 37-1 at the end of 10 overs. We knew there was a lot of work that needed to be done in the next half of their batting or else we would be set a massive total to chase. They were 52-1 after 12.5 overs. Next ball was a big moment in the game, as Kunal picked up their captain Sandeep and that was the beginning of a dramatic collapse for Dazzlers. Over the next 7 overs, Dazzlers, lost 8 more wickets for just 11 runs and were all out for 63. Karan was our stand-out bowler who picked up 4 wickets for just 13 runs (of which 10 were conceded in his first over). We chased down 64 pretty comfortably in 16.1 overs for the loss of just 2 wickets, Anand top-soring with 24(39) and Mohit playing a quick fire 15(16). All in all a truly professional performance. As expected, Karan was declared MoM.

Next up was Spartans in quarter-finals, Spartans were favorites to win the championship, so we were definitely the under-dogs going into the game. We won the toss and decided to bat first. We were bowled out for 59 in 19.4 overs, and knew we were a good 10-15 runs short. Things didn't exactly go as planned, just when we were trying to accelerate the scoring, Abhinandan, our stand-in captain, broke his wrist when batting and had to retire hurt. So there we were with a modest total of 59, but that is all we had and knew we had to pull-in a special performance in bowling and fielding if we were to get the better of Spartans. What followed next was an amazing effort in the field, we bowled Spartans out for 43 in 18.2 overs, with none of their batsman even getting into double figures. It was a great bowling effort with all our bowlers picking up at least a wicket. Sreeram, was adjudged MoM for his aggressive fast bowling (2-7) and splendid catching (2 catches).

Next up on our road were Hattrickers, an extremely consistent team and key part of their success is that they do not rely on any special performance but a collective team effort. We also had a personal score to settle with them, as they beat us in the finals of inaugural version of this tournament back in 2006. Hattrickers won the toss and decided to bat first. At the end of 10 overs they were 33-2 and were in a decent position to push the momentum and post a good score. The game was being played at Washington park in Sunnyvale and the pitch itself was not an easy one to bat, odd ball was keeping low, and a lot of good-length balls were just picking up from no-where. So we knew, that chasing anything in access of 70 is going to be a stretch.

Hattrickers as expected started strongly after the break and managed to get 17 of the next 3 overs, and were comfortably placed at 50-2. Next up, a brilliant moment in the field got us back on track, Ganeri who was fielding at short mid-wicket, picked up the ball single-handed and hit the stumps direct to force a runout and break a crucial partnership. From that point onwards, there was no looking back for us, we bowled them out for 71 in 19.4 overs, with last 8 Hattrickers wicket falling for just 21. (Nimish being the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3-14)

Set to chase 72, we knew it wasn't going to be easy and that the game is going to down to the wire. At the end of 8 overs we were 18-1 and things weren't looking too great for us. At that point, Puneet and Kunal stepped up things, and at end of 10 overs we were 31-1, with 41 more to get in the last ten overs. After the break, Puneet continued to bat agressively before he was dismissed for a match-winning 24(26) and we were 55-3 at the end of 14 overs, with 17 to get in the last 6 overs. 2 more wickets went down with score still at 55. In came Sreeram, who blasted a couple of 6's of 2 balls and we were now within touching distance. We chased down 72 without any further damage in 16.5 overs and rocked into the final's of the 2009 regular season. Puneet was rightly declared MoM.

We are going to face Squared Leg in the finals and it should be an exciting contest. So far in the run-up to the finals, we have played some very disciplined cricket and have won pretty convincingly in all of our last 3 games, that too against some very talented teams. In all of our last 3 games, we have been tagged as under-dogs (rightly so), but we seemed to have taken a liking for the under-dog tag and it keeps us extra determined to force the result in our favor.

Go Champs!

Composed by: Nimish!