[edit] FUN’d raising with Cricket - VIBHA does it again with a thrilling finish!!

Staff Reports - Vibha

The alarms went off at 4:30AM in 9 homes in Chattanooga, Tennessee. But Bindu didn’t really need it. He and his team mates had been waiting for an year for this day. He was up, worrying about the pesky little team from Cleveland, Tennessee that was playing the role of giant killer and growing in confidence match to match. He was concerned about the teams from Webb Bridge - the Monsters and the Sixers, and the confident Georgia Tech. Playboys hadn’t escaped his radar either. Enough with the worrying, he assured himself - “if we played like we’re capable, we can beat anyone”. All his team mates, Bali, Radha, Ravi, et al. echoed the same thoughts as they made their two and a half hour journey to Atlanta for their 11 AM game.

As all the teams made their plans and headed to the ground, the VIBHA volunteer crew diligently prepared for another grueling day. The weather forecast looked promising except for the heat, so the remaining twelve matches could be completed on time. For Vibha volunteers, led by Srinivas Vemulapalli, it would be the culmination of several weeks of hard work and dedication in putting together such a wonderful tournament - The Maharaja Cricket Cup 2003. As Srinivas said it himself - "It gives me immense satisfaction being the coordinator of this tournament. From this event alone, we raised enough funds to support one project for a full year."

By the end of it all, more than 400 players would have competed, and more than 30 volunteers would have contributed in running a very successful championship. And all the proceeds would go to education projects to help under-privileged children in Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and other states in India. These projects not only help in building better facilities for schools in small villages, but also in developing more joyful learning methods, to keep these children in school and to even help slow learners. The projects also help in educating adults through Village Education Committees, about various social and child related issues. They fund not only basic education programs, but skill development courses, including some basic computer training. Basic meals and some health care are also provided to children in some of these projects. Extra emphasis is given to projects which fund education programs for girl children, to ensure there are fewer dropouts and they become self reliant in the future. Vibha is an almost entirely volunteer driven organization filled with extremely conscientious and dedicated individuals that run these fund raising cultural and sports events in several action centers in the USA. Their next event is the 2003 Walk and Run in September. Details of several of these grassroots projects and other events are on their website at www.vibha.org.

Although the top four teams from the early round games got a bye into the quarter finals, some teams needed to win at least 4 more games to win the cup. So it was going to be a test of skill, endurance and desire. One of the early matches of the day between the Webb Bridge Sixers and High Octane displayed all these and more. The Sixers chasing a modest total of 64 - seemingly had it all sewn up, but High Octane fighting tooth and nail, clawed its way back to an even situation, with the Sixers needing four runs off the last four balls, with a wicket left. The Sixers’ last batsman, Sriram came through with a nice cover drive for four and they survived. The Sixers then met the ECS Hawks in the quarters. ECS, inspite of upsetting the defending champions, The Dunwoody All Stars were overwhelmed by the Sixers, who got contributions from everyone on the team to score 76. Sachin threatened to win it by himself scoring 3 sixes in the first over itself, but after his departure, the Hawks collapsed for 69. The Sixers had quietly worked their way up to the Final Four and remained the under dogs. They weren’t even considered the best team from Webb Bridge Parkway - who would be the Monsters.

The Monsters had a bye in the pre-quarters and had to beat Cleveland to advance. Wet behind the ears, they seemed - but on the cricket field, these Tennesseans played like stars. They fielded and bowled like champions. Keyur, who seemed like the big brother to all the young teenagers on his team, led the way with a brilliant catch off his own bowling. Anandh seemed like he was everywhere cutting off singles and taking tough catches, even with the noon time sun in his eyes. The Monsters seemed flat and produced just 48 runs, which Cleveland, with their stylish southpaw, Kamlesh scoring an unbeaten 38, finished easily losing just one wicket.

The exuberance and confidence of youth showed, as the GT team, dominated their opponents in the prequarters and quarters, with Ambrish leading the way to the semifinals, with some powerful knocks and very effective bowling. Unfortunately, Great Acht, didn’t quite have the great eight from the week before and didn’t survive the Killer Khalsas, who in turn lost to the Chattanooga Vols in the quarter finals. The Vols warmed up to their task and got to the semis, by crushing 114 in their 10 overs, peppered with plenty of sixes off the hapless Khalsas, who could only muster 72, in reply.

The stage for the semis was set and the four teams with their families and friends cheering them on in all languages. The Vols were predominantly Tamil, while the Cleveland team were cheering aloud in Gujarati. Leading the way, was 13-year old Partha, who called himself the Yell-Leader and Physician for Cleveland. He said that he hoped to make the team next year and that they practiced every weekend ! Every time Partha passed the tent with the trophies, he would say out aloud, pointing at the winner’s cup - ‘Apun ka eech hai’ - ‘The cup is ours’, with a confident smile on his face. The Playboys had that boisterous Yellow Jacket support from some of the volunteers, Niket in particular. And the Sixers brought their spouses and children to root for them.

In the first semi, the Sixers posted a very formidable total of 85, with their best batsman Shyam top scoring with 45 runs. Tech was looking very good with Ambrish blazing away, at 58/3 with 4 overs to spare. But suddenly Ambrish was caught off a good ball from Devang and the rest of the lineup collapsed like a pack of cards! It was a disappointing finish for the Playboys but a calm and efficient performance from the veteran team from Alpharetta.

The battle of Tennessee raged on, on the other field. Cleveland won the toss and elected to field. Chasing seemed to be their forte, having won all their games that way. And again, they showed their mettle with an outstanding performance with the ball. Before they realized it, Chattanooga lost 7 wickets for a little over 30 runs. Radha battled on for almost 3 overs to get them to 49. They had a monumental task at hand to defend that low of a score. Kamlesh and captain Bhavin almost finished it themselves with scores of 17 and 22. They relaxed a bit and showed their youth with some rash shots as the seasoned team, the Vols, who looked out of it in the middle overs, caught a second wind and pounced on them. Wickets tumbled, as Bindu and Bali bowled with poise and purpose. Keyur - was the last man standing in the final 2 overs and just 7 runs to get. Radha came steaming in and bowling his best yorkers, but Keyur calmly blocked them out and took the singles. Bali, bowling the last over, even tried a little leg spin to induce a catch, but big brother swatted the balls away, to save the day as Cleveland made it to an improbable final. As disappointed as they were, the Vols showed their class as they congratulated their state-mates and stayed on to root for them in the finals. Wait till next year, we’ll come back stronger, Bindu and company promised !

After a brief rest for about an hour, and the weather cooling off a bit, the final began with the Webb Bridge Sixers captain calling right on the coin toss and batting first. Captain Sanjay set the tone early with a crisp 29 and others like Azim chipped in with useful innings’. Cleveland, led by Mitesh who claimed 3 wickets, played well, but didn’t dominate like in their previous two games. In response, they lost Ravi early, but Kamlesh was at it again, pulling and chipping his way to a very good unbeaten 32. But chasing 71was not going to be easy and wickets fell around Kamlesh. With one over left and just 4 runs to get, Shyam got the burden of bowling the last over. And deliver he did, bowling a great line and length and putting the pressure on, as even the calm Keyur fell to a bad shot leaving only Mitesh to help Kamlesh, who was stuck at the non-striker’s end. With one ball to go and 2 runs to win and 1 run to tie, in which case too, Cleveland would have won, having lost fewer wickets, the crowd went wild and several discussions followed, with both teams huddling to discuss strategies. After about 5 minutes of pandemonium, the last ball was bowled and Mitesh swung wildly, but the only thing that flew was the bat off his hands and ball ended up in the keepers hands who calmly knocked the stumps off, and the Sixers won by ONE run! What an amazing win, after eighty overs of nail-biting cricket, the Sixers were a deserving champion. They played as a team and despite facing some brilliant individual performances from many opposing teams, they came through, with a very satisfying victory.

The tournament ended with a simple trophy presentation to the Champions and Runners-up. The Vols’ captain, Bindu deservedly won the Best Bowler trophy and the Georgia Tech. star Ambrish won the Best Batsman prize. Although he ended up not winning the final, Kamlesh batted and bowled like a champ and was rewarded with the Man of the Match for the Finals. With many key performances all through the tournament, Azim from the Sixers was chosen as the Man of the Tournament. Mr. Ramesh Maturi, Vice President for Pyramid Consulting and Mr. J.T.Ahluwalia from the Maharaja restaurant were kind enough to show their support to Vibha and their activities and gave out the trophies to the participants. Vibha showed their appreciation to Maharaja, the Title sponsor when Mr. Maturi handed a plaque on Vibha’s behalf to Mr. Ahluwalia. Mr. Ahluwalia added "I am happy to see this tournament grow so big. Vibha is doing a wonderful job in organizing these fund-raisers for a good cause. We are very proud to be associated with them and we will continue to support them in future". Echoing the same sentiments, Mr. Maturi also expressed strong appreciation for Srinivas and all the volunteers of Vibha. The trophy winners also expressed their appreciation for all the tireless efforts of all the volunteers and the good projects that they helped support. Vibha organization expresses it’s special thanks to Pyramid Consulting, FutureTech India Sports and Recreation center, Mirch Masala and Clayoven for their sponsorship. All in all, it was a lovely ending to a great tournament. We realized that this weekend had no losers, just winners. And champions - for a wonderful cause.

[edit] Results:

Round 2:

Mohsin/KSU beat Core Card

Pre-Quarters:

Cleveland beat Mohsin/KSU Webb Bridge Sixers beat High Octane GT Playboys beat Prabir Killer Khalsas beat Great Acht

Quarters:

GT Playboys (131/3 Subbu 28 Ambarish 52) beat Pyramid B (57 Shiv 34 Satya 2/20 ) Cleveland (53/1 Kamlesh 38*) beat Webb Bridge Monsters (48, Sanjay 10, Mitesh 3/12) Webb Bridge Sixers (76, Sriram 21, Nandu 4/25) beat ECS Hawks (69/7, Sachin 30, Azim 2/25) Chattanooga Vols (114/4, Bindu 43) beat Killer Khalsas (72, Manish 22, Bindu 11/3, Ravi 8/4)

Semis:

Webb Ridge Sixers (82/5, Shyam 45, Sanjay 17) beat GT Playboys (65 , Ambrish 21, Devang 4/23) Cleveland (51/7, Kamlesh 17, Bavin 22, Bindu 3/11) beat Chattanooga Vols (49, Ravi 18, Keyur 2/14)

Finals:

Webb Ridge Sixers (71, Sanjay 29, Azim 18, Mitesh 3/18) beat Cleveland (Kamlesh 32*, Shyam 2/3)

Prepared by Mallick Huggahalli, Tournament Referee - Maharaja Cricket Cup 2003, in the interest of the general public and Vibha supporters and patrons.