Guts & Glory 151/5 in 16 overs (Sai 57, Chinna 24, Danger 4/32) defeated IOC Warriors 108/10 in 12.4 overs (Jagdeesh 29, Balaji 18, Vamsi 3/17) by 43 runs
The City Premier League 2019 concluded with Sai taking the Guts & Glory to the glorious trophy without much trouble. The fourteen team tournament saw some fantastic games over past 32 days with some of the most promising talents in the town of Rajamahendravaram taking on each other at the railway ground. Guts & Glory along with IOC Warriors, the two top teams of the tournament went head to head on 12th of July in order to finally have the team who takes the glittering trophy back home.
G&G piled on 151 in the first inning after they elected to bat first when the coin landed in their favor. Sai destroyed the Warriors with some glorious, free flowing drives, pulls, flicks and sweeps. His 57 came off just 37 balls which included 6 fours and 2 sixes. The others batted around him. None of the G&G partnerships yielded less than 33 runs if you leave aside the last wicket. Most of the batsmen got starts and in a 16 over game, you just need one good inning along with few starts. The useful contributions from Nani (18), Jaga (21), Sumanth (16) and Chinna (24) ensured a total that was achieved only twice in the tournament.
If you are chasing the third highest total of the tournament in a final, you can’t afford to lose four of your top wickets for just 28. The Warriors probably didn’t watch the India vs New Zealand semifinal prior to their game, had they did they would have been aware of the importance of early wickets in a chase, especially in a game where everything is at stake.
Jagdeesh and Balaji played the role of M.S.Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja in the CPL final as they rescued their team when a defeat looked inevitable. The similarities ended the way Warriors did not want it to happen. A 41 run partnership between the two ensured that the Warriors won’t be bundled out below 100 but that was only good enough for them to call it a ‘Defeat with some prestige’. The celebration that began in the G&G dressing room in the fourth over itself went unstoppable by the 14th over as Vamsi rattled the stumps of Pawan.
