Last week: Play-offs and Finals

Play-offs

1st Play-off
Chhatrapati vs The Blue Indians
Winners: The Blue Indians

Synopsis:
The Blue's are truly the one who deserve to be in the Final. 
Winning the toss, Chhatrapati's elected to bat. With a different of 15 overs, and a beautiful sunny morning, the stage was set to score big, put enough runs on the board, and put the opposition under pressure. The winners would have been in the finals of SPL4. The Chhatrapati's did everything opposite of what was expected. With an intention to save the wickets and hit out in the end, they did neither. Loosing the openers quickly and their main batsman Kapil run out, the chhatrapati's went into a shell, so hard that they even couldn't break it. The Blue's on the other hand, went through their overs so quickly that by the time chhatrapati's realized they need to score, they didnt have any overs left. Rahul Bhat who had shown so much promise in earlier games, couldn't score freely and in process lost many opportunities to score. Credit to Blue's captain for taking 4 wickets for just 6 runs.
Their bowling, fielding must be admired.
The 2nd Innings: Defending a paltry 40, Chhatrapati's needed wickets. Their opening bowlers struck pretty early dismissing the openers as well as Sidd, one of their main batsman. There after Shibu decided to get glued to the crease, not allowing the bowlers even a glimpse of his stumps, let alone offering strokes. That frustated the bowlers, who then conceded some extras as well. Still, the bowlers didnt let go, and picked some more wickets towards the 2nd half of the innings, but the Indians had already reached near the target. Finally, they won with 3 wickets to spare. They have beat Chhatrapati's for the 2nd time in the tournament.
The Blue's have displayed great team effort through out the tournament and thats why they deserve to be among the top. On a different note, they haven't scored or chased more than 58 yet. Somethings others can bank on in the finals.
The Chhatrapati's have one last game to go to prove their mettle and again lock horns with the blues in the finals. 

2nd Play-off
Spartans vs 13 Warriors
Winners: 13 warriors

Synopsis:
A battle of nerves!! Warriors are definitely better at it.
A rain delayed start, wet outfield, a very bad toss to loose for Spartans and bowling first on a wet outfield was a challenge. The 13 warriors took full advantage and minced the Spartan bowlers running quick singles and rotating the strike continuously. First breakthrough came very late in the 5th over, when Shiva dismissed one of the opener and the following batsman by rattling their stumps. That didn't stop warriors as their captain hammered the bowling. With 64 runs on the board in 10 overs, Warriors were set to score above 90 with 5 overs remaining. A sudden twist came in the game as Guru took 3 wickets in the next over that included the captain's dismissal. The following batsman couldn't score much as warriors ended up at 77. The control Spartan's showed in the 2nd half was much better than the 1st 8 overs, which should be forgettable. Kudo's to Bharat and Yash for giving Warriors a great start.
The 2nd Innings: Spartan's too started with bang, not bogged down with the huge total. Rahul scored freely and gave Spartan's a great start and setting the tempo. There after Shiva batted beautifully and brought Spartan's close to victory. The game had to stop due to bad light as Spartans needed just 8 off 10 balls for victory. Starting afresh the 2nd day, Parthiv dismissed Guru immediately and that followed a quick unfortunate run out. That was the end for the Spartans in SPL4, who showed a lot of promise early on but just couldn't hold themselves together in the end. They looked much better and in control before the bad light was called than the 2nd day. Who know's, the result could have been different.
Overall an exciting match and the better team won. Warriors now still had one more hurdle to reach the finals.

3rd Play-off
Chhatrapati's vs 13 Warriors
Winners: Chhatrapati's

Synopsis from Guest Author: Sanjay Ahire

It was that day of Semi Finals...Rahul Nikam's Chatrapati's vs Parthiv's 13 Warrior's. It was a very beautiful sunny day, when the teams locked horns. Started with less crowd to watch, missing the DJ's of the SPL tournament,Organiser's not turning up in big numbers, teams started practising under watchful eyes of their captains. Teams were looking pretty pumped up looking to make it their day and enter dream finals. 

Game started with Kapil starting the bowling attack. Kapil did not hold back even with severe pain in his legs.Yash and Tushar opened the batting for Warriors.Yash tried to play in and played some good strokes on the leg side. Tushar was trying to play an uncharacteristic innings to play ground strokes. Both of the openers departed after promising to threaten. It was a good bowling attack from the Chatrapati's with striking two quick wickets at the top order. Aruna and Parthiv consolidated innings to keep pace, wondering if the total could better their previous team score against Spartan's.
Parthiv did everything in his capacity to run non-existent runs, scoring regular couple and clearing boundaries and running freely leaving fielders gasping for breath. Parthiv was particularly severe on the Chatrapati's captain Rahul Nikam. Scoring at a run rate of 5 plus, the scoreboard reached 50 during 10th over.With ample wickets in hands, suddenly the tide turned and the batting side collapsed due to a sensible bowling performance by Atul, Viraj and later Rahul Nikam. Restricting the innings total to 70 in itself was a good bowling performance considering Parthiv's solid innings.

Chatrapati's batting resumed with Atul and Viraj for a change. Innings resumed proceedings with a good leg side glance on mid wicket from Atul's blade striking 4 of the first Parthiv over. Unable to keep the ball safe in another aerial route, Atul lost his wicket early. Viraj and Rahul Nikam who promoted himself ahead, continously rotated strike to keep scoring at will. Rahul's six off Parthiv straight down the ground provided great start to the innings enabling a healthy 5 plus  run rate through out. It looked as if the pair would take the team unscathed, dehydrated Rahul slipped at the non-strikers end and running out while returning back after a mix up while wanting to take a quick single. Till that time, Viraj and Rahul played gem of innings to keep the Chatrapati dug out cheerful. Run out was the turning point in the innings as the Warriors with their tails up started fighting back with a much improved bowling/fielding performance. What looked like a done-dusted match turned on its head after Kapil was run-out third time in this tournament. That is the only way Kapil seems to get out, tribute to his good batting. Kapil had hit a big six on the leg side straight into the basket ball court, keeping the scoring rate real high needing team to score only 13 runs in remaining 4 overs. However,wickets kept on tumbling due to incisive bowling and mounting pressure of semi finals. Sledging was a good entertainment for the crowd adding to the mix in the match. It was left to the middle order to finish the nervous runs and the scoreline read 5 runs needed off last over from Hari. A tense last over proved too much for the teams as the crowd cheered as if this was a final game. Vinit, Amol and Rahul Bhatt ensured the team crossed the line after a hard fought last over.It was Rahul Bhatt who scored a boundary off the last ball of the innings swinging a leg side ball. It took a lots of courage from the middle order to ensure a deserving victory to the Chatrapati's. Warriors played out of their skin to make life miserable for the opponent team and thanks to the never-say-die attitude, it was a breath taking game for all on the ground. Eventually, it was the game and spirit of cricket that won and not any side in particular. 

IMoving on to the Finals it brings back the memories of the 2 matches that the Chatrapati's have lost against Blue Indians. As the two known teams get ready to match their wits and skills in the finals, it would be a match to look forward to. Chatrapati's would want to avenge the previous defeats and Blue Indians looking to stamp the ultimate authority on the tournament, it is time to look forward to and tighten the seat belts for a much awaited Grand Finale and enjoy the game. 

May the brave heart win...

Grand Finale

Chhatrapati vs The Blue Indians

Winners: The Blue Indians

It all came down to the Sunday evening, the BIG GAME, The Gold Champions Trophy, the two teams were eyeing for..

Chhatrapati's seemed upbeat with the last win.They had bowled well, batted brilliantly in the last game, and in hope to do so again, chose to bat first. The blues didn't seem unhappy with the decision as they had always preferred to chase. The blues struck immediately, with both their openers Viraj and Atul were back in the shades. The Captain, Rahul too missed out on a well disguised slower one from pradip which hit the stumps. It was left to Chhatrapati's main batsman Kapil to carry their innings forward. He along with Vinit built a good partnership and along with some small contributions from lower order batsman, chhatrapati's reach a respectable score of 58. Well, the blues had seen that score before. The bowling from the Blues was bang on and Chhatrapati's hardly received any loose balls. The street smart cricketer Shibu bowled brilliantly by varying his pace regularly. Fielding that had carried the blues this far didnt let them down in the final game as well and with Akhil leading from the front catching most fliers in the series, Blues didnt seem to let themselves down with that reason.

The 2nd Innings: Chasing 58, a total Indians have seen before plenty.. seemed pretty comfortable to start with. With one of the openers dismissed pretty early, Chhatrapati's were expected to make inroads but unfortunately they couldn't. It was the quiet, thin but impenetrable wall again that stuck like a thorn in Chhatrapati's neck,Mr Pradip that carried the Blues through 80% of their chase. He scored 29, half of total runs scored by Chhatrapati's. Akhil gave him an excellent stand by scoring quick singles and constantly punishing the bowlers for bowling bad balls. The way the Indians batted through out the innings by stealing singles with the ball in fielders hand was really appreciable. If anyone stood out from Chhatrapati's during the second half  was Viraj, who played his heart out and never gave up. Blue's in the end won a comfortable and sweet victory. 

Celebrations all around..

Kudo's to the champions and congratulations to each team member of both The Blue Indians and Chhatrapati's for making the final a memorable one.

I would like to thank each and everyone who participated and made this event a success..

And this blog was only meant for fun only and i apologize to anyone and any team if my comments came accross as irrespectful or insulting.  

Signing off.. Guru