Old School Cricketers 188/7 in 20 overs (B.C.Devaraj 101, Vinay Kumar 22, Nikhil 2/25) defeated Frintel 173/5 in 20 overs (Shishir 62, Siddharth 43, Sapthagiri 2/27) by 16 runs
B.C.Devaraj routed Frintels on his way to 101 off 54 balls and it was his inning which secured the Bails Sun Burn T20 title 2019 for the Old School Cricketers. The 12 team tournament was contested in a league cum knockout format from 9th march to 14th July. The teams were split across two groups who played each other once before top two from each group made it to the semifinals. Old School won a close game against Unity CC XI in the semifinal by 2 runs while Frintal knocked out the Jaguar XI by 8 runs in the second semifinal.
The tournament had two groups named Solar and Lunar. It was the heat from Solar group that prevailed in the end as Frintal, the table toppers were up against their arch rivals Old School in the final. It was a kind of a rematch between two teams in the final. Back in the march, Frintal defeated Old School cricketers by 3 wickets and they remained unbeaten till the final.
The coin was flipped as early as 7:30 AM in the morning and the first ball was already delivered before a few lazy people could leave the bed. The statement might be harsh on lazy people but not as harsh as Devaraj on Frintal bowlers on that morning. His show got underway with a brilliant cover driver and it went on till the 20th over. Devaraj was never worried about the wickets at the other end as none of the batsmen apart from him could manage a score of 25 with Vinay being the second highest scorer of the inning with 22. He sailed the inning past 185 single handedly, a target none of the teams could achieve in the course of whole tournament.
Although 188 was a target that none of the teams could manage at this edition, Frintal had Nikhil Virupakshi in his XI, the leading run scorer at the tournament and it’s not like 188 was never achieved in the second inning at the tournament. Extreme Blaster scored 196 against Unity CC XI in a league game but that came in a losing cause as they fell short by 32 runs. The chase began with a lot of positive intent and the game was on till 10th over as Frintals gunned down 92 for two in first ten but unfortunately their batsmen failed to produce an inning of Devaraj’s caliber.
The chase was on even in the 15th over, in fact 48 off 30 in modern day game usually means that the chasing team are favorites but everything changed after the 15th over. Skipper Vivek failed to middle almost anything and he consumed 10 balls for his 3. Frintals could manage only 19 between 16th and 19th over which cost them the game.
