GC 10 Tigers 142/8 in 15 overs (Gopal Thakur 53, Arpit 30, Hardik 1/21) defeated The Duckstars 131/10 in 15 overs (Azam Khan 60, Anu 39, Dev 4/14) by 11 runs
Being in NCR, Greater Noida is not much known for its tennis ball cricket. The city is primarily dominated by the red and white (and now even pink) cherry thanks to various cricket academies in the National Capital Region and around. But the legendries of tennis ball game are here to remain, no matter how much professional and semi-professional cricket takes over.
The Challenger Cup 2019 is an evidence of how the popularity of tennis ball cricket still rules the hearts of amateurs. 27 teams from all across NCR and Delhi participated in the tournament and if you browse across the scorecards of the tournament you will know how competitive it was throughout the past 50 days.
All the games were played in a 15 over format (With some games being 16 overs). The tournament was followed by over 35 thousand people at cricheroes. Three different finals were played for three various groups namely Gold, Silver, and Bronze.
In the silver group it was GC 10 Tigers and & The Duckstars made it to the finals. Both the teams had one final battle in the NCR heat and humidity before they can relax and have some selfies uploaded on their social media handles with the trophy. The final got off the way as Tigers won the toss and elected to bat first.
GC 10 Tigers had a wobbly start as they lost their top three batsmen within the first five overs. Sandy departed in the second over, Dilip and Abhinav followed him in no time. Gopal needed a partner on the other end to survive for him and that’s exactly what Arpit did. Arpit dominated the partnership as he plundered 30 out of 39 runs partnership.
In an unfortunate event, Arpit lost his wicket when he was found short of the crease while attempting a risky run. Nishant joined Gopal in the middle and now the roles for Gopal were exchanged. He took care of blasting the opposition bowlers while Nishant was ticking along. Gopal got out to Suhail in the 13th over after a spectacular inning of 59. Some late blows from Dev (24 off 8) ensured a target of 143 for the Duckstars to chase. The chase began for the Duckstars in an eye-catching manner. The opening pair gunned down 67 runs off the target within the first 5 overs and it was Azam Khan who did most of the destruction as Rahul enjoyed the slaughtering from the other end. Azam departed on the first ball of sixth over, after scoring 60 out of first 67 runs. His inning consisted of 6 massive sixes, some of them never recovered.
Cricket is a cruel sport and that’s what we saw for the second time in a day here at cricheroes. Earlier the Royals fell short in their chase of 48 after being none for 23 and this is what happened to the Duckstars too. While they dominated the first 5 overs, they lost 6 wickets for just 13 runs in next 5. The middle-order forgot how to handle a bat out of sudden. Some rescue operations were conducted by the Wicketkeeper Batsman Anu (39 off 20) late in the inning but unfortunately he had no one on the other end to compliment him. Duckstars fell short by 11 runs in the end.