[edit] Pyramid Consulting Super 16 Cricket 2007!!

[edit] Blue Panthers retain Supremacy in Vibha Cricket

Vibha Atlanta Team

By winning two major tournaments in less than two months, Blue Panthers proved once again that they are the Australians of Cricket in Atlanta. Having won the FutureTech Vibha Tournament in May very convincingly, they once again showed their supremacy and determination on June 30th and clinched the Pyramid Consulting Vibha Cricket Super-16 Corporate Challenge.

The Super-16 Corporate Challenge was an off-shoot of the larger tournament held in May. In this event, the top teams from the May tournament were pitted against each other, and some corporate teams joined the fray as well. It was a huge success, raising valuable funds for child development projects supported by Vibha in India. For a complete list of projects currently funded by Vibha, please visit www.vibha.org/projects.

The entire tournament was finished in one day, with matches being played in parallel on the Georgia Tech astro-turf field. The matches started promptly at 8AM, and continued all day. Winners battled not only their opponents but also soaring temperatures of more than ninety degrees as they advanced through the rounds. The final match began at 9.30PM in flood lights and the event came to a late (yet spectacular) finish at 11.30PM. All the players and the volunteers, though exhausted, were happy to have completed yet another successful Vibha tournament.

Ninad Patil the captain of the Blue Panthers and a long time participant in Vibha cricket, was all praise for his team and the organizers – “We would like to thank Vibha for hosting this tournament annually and giving us an opportunity to participate, compete and enjoy the game that we all are so passionate about. Our dual victories in successive tournaments is a result of our commitment and passion towards the game. We play year round regularly from week to week and constantly strive to improve and better ourselves. Tournaments like this give us an opportunity to compete and showcase our talent and is something that everyone on the team eagerly awaits every summer. I would like to thank and dedicate this victory to everyone on the team, not just the playing 10 but all the members who religiously make it to practice every weekend. Everyone on this team has enjoyed this summer of Cricket from Vibha and we will be back next year with the same energy and enthusiasm. Finally, as a team we would like to thank PBS&J (our sponsors) who made a benevolent contribution to a great cause - helping underprivileged children in India. I hope we have lived up to their expectation and can continue to do so in future.”

Histrionics, heroics, heaves, huge sixes, classic cover drives, close finishes, tied-matches, heated arguments – all were abundant in the course of the day!

Blue Panthers steadily (and not as menacingly as in the previous tournament) made their way to the semi-finals. There they played Dosa Houze – who won some tough matches to reach the semi-finals after regrouping themselves after an early-exit in the May tournament. Despite having restricted the Blue Panthers to a reasonably low score of 84 runs and making a good start, they could not withstand the accurate and deadly bowling of Anish and Yogesh of Blue Panthers.

Alpharetta Monsters, last year’s Super-16 champions and the traditional powerhouses of Vibha cricket, reached the other semi-final convincingly. Their opponents in the semifinals - ‘Cool Guys’, had a big surprise in store for the spectators. Having won the hearts of Vibha volunteers in the last tournament by making the largest team donation, they once again entered the tournament to enjoy the game and have some fun. What was expected to be a one-sided affair in favor of the Alpharetta Monsters turned out to be the biggest upset of the tournament. Cool Guys were restricted to a modest 75 runs, but then, in what was arguably their most listless tournament performance in several years, the Monsters lost their way while batting - costing them the match.

Cool Guys began the finals with renewed vigor and gave away only 67 runs in their allocated ten overs. From the Blue Panthers, Dharam Damani made a gritty 25 runs to bump up the score and gave his bowlers a fighting opportunity. In response, with rain on the horizon, the Cool Guys opening pair made a cautious start and were ahead of their rivals at the 5 over mark, the minimum number of overs needed to decide the outcome in the event of rain. However, the rain held back just a little longer for the Blue Panthers to fight back into the game. They bowled a few tidy overs in the middle to tighten the screws on the Cool Guys. Although Jaydeep hit some mighty blows to bring some hope into his team, it was just too little too late. Finally, the Blue Panthers prevailed, yet again!

Ela Govind of Cool Guys said "We've been playing in Vibha Cricket for six years now and we are happy that we came so close to winning the trophy this time. Every year we come here and have a lot of fun but this time we had a chance to show our cricketing side too. We thank Srinivas Vemulapalli and the Vibha Team for creating the opportunity to play and donate for a wonderful cause."

Mr. Ramesh Maturu of Pyramid Consulting was gracious to come for the late-night prize distribution ceremony and awarded the prizes to the Champions and Runners-Up. The following prizes were also given out to the winners.

Man of the Tournament - Jaydeep Desai (Harsh)

Man of the Match - Finals : Dharam Damani

Best Batsman is Narendra Sahoo From Dosa Houze

Best Bowler - Dhronal Shaw

The unstoppable volunteers at Vibha are getting ready to do two more BIG events BACK-TO-BACK ! A concert by India’s most famous rock music band “Indian Ocean” will be held on August 17th at the Roswell Cultural Center, to be followed by “The Dream Mile 5K Run/Walk” on September 22 at Georgia Tech. Please visit http://atlanta.vibha.org for more details. Join us to share the excitement and make a difference!