Mech Bulls 93/4 in 13.3 overs (Govinda Raju 27, Shankar 26, Balaji 15 2/12) beat ECE Warlords 92/8 in 14 overs (Babji 14 21, Prabhakar 2/27, A Raja 1/14) by 6 wickets.
As the second innings started, Mech Bulls needed 93 runs to chase down and with that they would become the champions of BPL Cricket Tournament. To achieve the feet, they needed to make sure they do not lose wickets and skipper Raju did exactly the same as he held one end throughout the innings. He and Kumar came out to open the innings for Mech Bulls, but their partnership didn't lasted for long as Bhupathi dismissed him on his first ball of his over. Then arrived Vamsy, he batted well for his 22, he took the total to 42 before getting dismissed. By then, Mech Bulls were in a comfortable position as they needed 51 more runs with more than 7 overs remaining and eight wickets in hand. While Raju was still there, Shankar also tried his hand as he hit two sixes in between. He made 26 runs in 21 balls. Raju also guided the chase perfectly, he was dismissed when Bulls were just 15 runs from triumph. At last Phani did the rest for Mech Bulls with three balls to spare, Mech Bulls register their name on the BPL Cricket Tournament. From the ECE Warlords' side, Bhupathi and Balaji took two wickets each.
It was Mech Bulls who won the toss and elected to bowl first. Now, ECE Warlords wanted to make sure they post a healthy total for the Bulls. As it was a 14 overs-a-side game, their batsmen really needed to fire, but unfortunately, their whole innings were influenced by run-outs. As a result, they made a mess of it and were able to put only 92 runs in 14 overs. Sai Kumar was first to depart, he contributed 10 runs, then there were couple of run-outs, then a wicket again followed by a couple of run-outs. Babji made 21 runs but took too many deliveries, he played as many as 23 balls for his 20 odd runs. Nagendra and Kiran added 14 and 16 runs respectively for ECE Warlords. Talking about bowling, Prabhakar was pick of the bowlers, his figures read 2/27 in four overs.
In the league stage, both the teams topped their respective pools, in fact it was even-stevens before the final, as either of the two sides hadn't lost any game in the previous stage. League matches were 10 overs game, semi-finals were 12 overs each side and final was 14-overs game. So the tournament was well organised and the interest of game was also maintained throughout. We hope next season comes up with more enthusiasm, till then, cheers!
