Avengers Noida 104/10 in 19.5 overs (Ashish 17, Ranjeet 15, Azam Khan 4/19) lost to The Duckstars 105/5 in 14.5 overs (Rahul 26, Azam Khan 25, Siddharth 2/27) by 6 wickets in the first Final
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Galaxy Gladiators 93/10 in 19 overs (Chandra 46, Akash 15, Ashwani 4/10) lost to Boundary Aimers XI 95/2 in 7.4 overs (Amit 56, Atul 26, Rohit 1/7) by 9 wickets
You can call them 'weird' tournaments but these tournaments do serve a purpose. A couple of months ago when the world cup final was tied, experts said: "It was a victory for both the teams". A month later, once again the same sentence was trending when Australia and England drew the Ashes. So tournaments like GS Super Captain League serve a greater purpose. They have taken "Both the teams won" to a new level. So if both the teams won, why not the trophies for both the teams?
If the above paragraph was confusing for you, GS Super Captain League 2019 was contested between 32 teams which were split across 8 groups. There were four games in the knockouts and if you think they were either quarterfinal, eliminators or the games for some spot, you are wrong. This interesting format saw all the 8 teams in the first phase of knockouts as 'semifinalists'. We had 4 semifinals, two finals and two winners of the tournament.
The first final was played between the Avengers Noida and The Duckstars. Avengers Noida won the toss and elected to bat first. They lost regular wickets after a steady opening partnership of 26. Openers Bhupender (12) and Vipin (14) got the starts but they failed to convert. Skipper Ashish Pandey was the victim of the same virus as he departed for 17. At 77 for 8, they were struggling to reach the three-figure mark but some late fightback from number 9 Manish (12) and Ranjeet (15) saw them past the figures. They failed to deal with the heat of Azam Khan who bagged four wickets for 19. Pawan Yadav complimented him with the figures of 2/17.
Any target at the limited-overs cricket where teams are chasing at less than 6 can't be leveled as 'defendable'. Rahul Bisht, the Dusckstars opener compiled a beautiful 26 off 20 and got his team off to a flying start in the chase. They wobbled a bit in the middle but the score was not enough to challenge the. Some useful innings from Tushar (17), Azam Khan (25), Shivam (11) and Madahv (14) lead the team past the target. The Duckstars bagged the first of two finals with ease. Azam Khan was awarded man of the match for his all-round performance.
The second final of the day got on the way a couple of hours after the conclusion of the first one. Galaxy Gladiators and Boundary Aimers made it to the second final after their remarkable performance in the third and fourth semifinals. Galaxy Gladiators won the toss and elected to bat first and became the victim of cricheroes first inning syndrome. Now you must be wondering what's that? So the past few games scored at cricheroes were heavily in the favor of the teams who chased the target.
At 22 for 5, Gladiators were already cursing themselves for the decision. They knew that they were trapped but to make a game out of it, they needed a fighter. They got it in the form of Chandra who scored 46 runs singlehandedly. Akash (15) complemented him well during the partnership of 43 but Gladiators needed much more than that. Fearsome spells from Ashwani (4/22), Mahesh (2/25) and Raunak (2/22) destroyed them. They had no answer to these bowlers and submitted for an eensy-weensy score of 93.
So being a Gladiator fan, you might have expected the bowlers to show some magic in the second inning because the juice was still there on the pitch. Unfortunately, though it proved too small for a heavyweight Duckstars batting lineup. Atul and Amit added 83 for the first wicket. Amit departed on the last ball of the powerplay, but the game was almost over till then. Atul scored 26 off 12 but it was Amit's batting that stole the show. Amit targetted the leg side and scored all the runs in that area. How much he enjoyed smashing the bowlers over mid-wicket and square leg can be seen on his wagon wheel. All five of his sixes came in that area only.
Needless to say, Amit bagged the man of the match award. For the fifth time in a row this month, a team chasing in a final has won.
