CCA Colts won the U-11 championship and Team Kapil won in the U-13 age category.

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[Source: CCA Media Release/Biju Katuparambil and Ajay Dawra]

Two teams participated in CCA's annual 25 over G1G U-13 cup held at the Cupertino library ground.  Team Kapil was coached by Rajendra Badadare and captained by Maulin Vazir.  Team Imran was coached by Yasir Farooqui and captained by Mohak Buch.

Pic (right): Team Kapil were the U13 champions

Following is a recap of the matches that occurred in the tournament.  For Detailed Scores of each game you can visit CCA's website.

In the first match, a terrific opening spell from Team Kapil bowlers compounded by some poor running between the wickets left Imran in shambles at 40 for 6. Athin (30 of 42 balls) and the tail helped Imran reach a respectable total of 96.

Some brilliant fielding including a stunner by Shishir at short cover left Team Kapil gasping at 3 for 3 in its chase.  At 9 for 3, a crucial catch was dropped and this changed the game and the momentum.  Team Imran outfielders dropped 5 catches and helped Nishant and Maulin Vazir compile a 53 run partnership.  Nishant was the early aggressor scoring a few boundaries; he was eventually out for 22 (of 38 balls). Captain Maulin played a very mature watchful innings; curbing his natural instinct to whack the ball. After the fifth wicket was down, he changed gears launching a massive six over midwicket.  Man of the Match Maulin’s 33 (not out of 53 balls) ensured that his team crossed the finish lines with 5 wickets to spare.

In the second match, Team Kapil batted first and after the openers got out cheaply; Captain Maulin and Arvind steadied their ship. At the break, with these 2 batting, Kapil looked all set for a big score. Arvind particularly looked to be in good knick. In the very first over after the break, Gaurav rocked Team Kapil with a double break-through; getting danger man Maulin (22 of 39 balls) and Nishant out. Arvind was joined by Sakthi who blasted a 4 to midwicket and set the ship rolling again. Arvind (25 of 27 balls) and Sakthi (16 of 29 balls) ensured that Kapil reached 114 for 7.

Team Imran started with an abundance of caution and maintained a decent 4+ run rate despite losing three wickets.  At 85/3 in 19.5 overs, Imran were a tad behind on the run rate but with 7 wickets in hand, Imran had an upper hand.  In the next seven balls, the team lost 3 wickets including Shankara for a well compiled 23 (of 38 balls).  That energized Team Kapil players.

With 27 required of 24 balls, Gaurav Patankar had the tail-enders with him. This is when Gaurav took over and played a cameo; he was particularly harsh on Shopnavo.  Gaurav scored 20 (not out) of 14 balls and Imran won with 2 wickets and 4 balls to spare, a contribution that earned him the Man of the Match award.

In game 3, played at the Spartans ground in San Jose, Team Kapil, put into bat in an unfamiliar ground, were 54 for 1 at the break, led by Maulin and Sohan.  A score of over 125 was in the cards.  After the break, Team Kapil lost its way trying to step up the run-rate. Sohan (17 of 51 balls) and Maulin (26 of 42 balls) were the top scorers. Team Imran's fight back was led by Captain Mohak who took 3 good catches and had a hand in one of the run outs. Team Kapil had scored 108 for 9 in their 25 overs.

When Team Imran started their innings, Mohak's strategy was simple: be aggressive and unsettle the bowlers. And that's what he did, a huge six over square leg and another boundary and Team Imran was running away with the match. Mohak's departure (17 of 19 balls) slowed down the run rate and a few other wickets including Shankara's (22 of 45 balls) made Team Imran players squirm a bit in their seats. However, Gaurav Patankar played another cameo (20 not out of 15 balls) helping his side win with 5 wickets and 5.5 overs to spare and took home another Man of the Match award.

In game 4, Team Kapil started the match with a switch hitter; the strategy did work and even though 3 wickets fell quickly the run rate was over 5 an over. The familiar pair of Nishant and Maulin steadied the innings and at the break Imran was well past 50 again. Team Imran bowlers faltered in the second half, a series of front foot no-balls and wides did not help their cause. Maulin and Arvind clobbered sixes of free hits and Team Kapil ended up at 113/8. Arvind (23 of 26 balls) and Maulin (25 of 55 balls) were the top scorers.

Team Kapil bowlers then provided an exhibition of “how to bowl to your field”. Team Imran was unable to penetrate the inner circle. Team Imran did not show the urgency to take singles and made the cardinal sin of not rotating the strike. The senior batsmen started getting bogged down and eventually succumbed to the run-rate pressure. Zayed Afzal bowled one of the best spells of the tournament and none of the Team Imran players could pick his line or length. Zayed ended up with an impressive spell of 5-0-18-5 and a Man of the Match award. This victory demoralized Team Imran and they had to come up with a tactic to play Zayed in the final game as the momentum had shifted to Team Kapil.

In the final game, Team Kapil batted first and were immediately on the defensive because of some brilliant fielding by Team Imran skipper Mohak Buch, which included a brilliant catch and an even brilliant run-out.  Maulin was the only resistance and Team Kapil was struggling at 58 for 7. Team Imran’s strategy was to get Team Kapil under 80. Aided by some poor bowling and good scores by Shashank Dholakia and Sahil Sharma , Team Kapil managed to put up 95 all out.  

Mohak started well and Team Imran was cruising along when the unthinkable happened - Shankara and Mohak ran themselves out. The morale was dropping, the run-rate was increasing and the pressure was building. Shopnavo Biswas who had been bowling an awesome line then stuck the dagger in Team Imran's heart getting Gaurav lbw.  It was a sweet pay-back for the second match rout and an effort that earned him the Man of the Match. Shopnavo ran through the line up ending up with a brilliant figure of 4-1-9-4 wickets. Other than Mohak (25 of 40 balls), none of the Imran players got into double figures and Team Imran were all out for 73.

Team Kapil deserved to be the champions. They played an outstanding two games where their players showed urgency to deliver; where their bowlers had that extra spring in their bowling; their fielders an extra zip in the fielding. The players had the drive to get the deal through.   Zayed Afzal, Maulin Vazir and Mohak Buch were named Best Bowler, Best Matsman and Best Fielder of the tournament.   Mohak also won the Player of the Series.  Nishant was named the Most Promising Player and Niraj Bangari was presented with the Sportsmanship award. 

U-11 Tournament

Three teams participated in the U-11 tournament - Colts coached by Ranga Ranganathan, Cubs coached by Chetan Shah and Sharks coached by Sukalpa Biswas.  All are WICB Level 2 coaches. 

The Colts easily won the first match against the Cubs.  In the second match, Shashank and Akhil Kumar scored 33 and 27 respectively to post the challenging total of 102 runs for loss of only 1 wkt, which came on penultimate ball of the inning , when Shashank was run out.  The Cubs chase fell short by 9 runs.

In the third game, Sharks were bundled out for 36 runs in 17.4 overs and Colts chased down the target.   In the fourth game played between the Cubs and Colts, batting first, the Cubs scored 63 for 7, with Ved top scoring with 18 runs.  Colts won in the last ball of the match.

In the fifth game between Cubs and Sharks, Cubs restricted Sharks to 55 for 8 and ended up winning the match by 6 wkts. This was first win of the tournament for Cubs.  Last and decisive match of the league was played between Colts and Sharks. Batting first, Sharks scored 65/4 in 20 overs with Shashank top scoring with17 runs.  Many Colts batsmen got a good start, but couldn’t capitalize and there were 3 run outs.  Colts were all out for 62 in 19.5 overs.

In the final between Sharks and Colts, Sharks captain, Akhil Kumar, won his fifth straight toss and elected to bat on a cold day. Shashank (15 runs) and Rohan (12 runs) helped the Sharks post 67 for 6. Pratham took 2 wkts for 11 runs in 4 overs and Vatsal bowled economical spell of 4 runs in 3 overs with 1 wicket.

Niraj Bangari batted well for the Colts scoring 20 runs in 25 balls helping the Colts chase down the target in 19.1 overs.  Colts won the finals by 5 wickets.

The following awards were presented:

Best Batsman -
Contenders: Shashank - 79 runs in 5 matches, Ved - 76 runs (3 NO) in 4 matches
Winner: Ved 76 runs (3 NO) in 4 matches.
 
Best Bowler –
Contenders: Shashank - 6 wickets (Runs/wkt average - 9.83, Runs/over average - 3.03), Aryan - 5 wickets (Runs/wkt average - 9.4, Runs/over average - 2.43),  Pratham - 5 wickets (Runs/wkt average - 7.8, Runs/over average - 2.6)
Winner: Pratham - 5 wickets (Runs/wkt average - 7.8, Runs/over average - 2.6)
 
Best Fielder –
Contenders: Shashank - 6 victims (5 catches and 1 run out), Pratham - 5 victims (2 catches and 3 run out)
Winner: Shashank - 6 victims (5 catches and 1 run out)
 
Best wicket Keeper –
Contenders: Niraj - 1 catch and 1 run out, Ritwik - 1 catch
Winner: Niraj - 1 catch and 1 run out

MVP –
Contenders: Shashank - 79 runs, 6 wickets and 6 fielding victims, 2 times MOM, Ved - 76 runs with 3NO, 3 wickets and 2 fielding victims, Amritanshu - 37 runs, 4 wickets and 1 catch. 2 times MOM.
Winner: Shashank - 79 runs, 6 wickets and 6 fielding victims, 2 times MOM

Most Improved Player award –
Abhinit Kashikar

Sportsmanship award -
Aryan