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India Currents gave me a voice in days I was very lost. Having my articles selected for publishing was very validating – Shailaja Dixit, Executive Director, Narika, Fremont
August 16-17, Cupertino, California: Team work, camaraderie, physical fitness, and some fun – along with supporting youth cricket development activities at California Cricket Academy(CCA). This was the main theme for the 2nd T20 Tournament at Cupertino Library Field.
California Cricket Academy (www.calcricket.org) started holding this corporate tournament to raise awareness of cricket programs run by CCA for Bay area school children. It has become an excellent instrument for corporations to foster team work while supporting youth cricket initiative – playing casual yet competitive cricket.
This year, Teradata Corporation, Los Gatos Lions, Ruckus Wireless, ArKrit Consulting LLC and TechMahindra entered their teams. All cricket enthusiasts brought their A Game to the field and on two hot days they gave their best in 6 T20 games.
Tech Mahindra won the tournament after defeating Ruckus Wireless in the Finals.
“This is our second year since we launched the Corporate Tournament, a first of its kind in the Bay Area. The Bay Area has several hundred thousand people who have grown up playing cricket but their work and life balance does not allow time for playing cricket.
Thanks to the corporate tournament initiative, their bosses are telling them to take time off to practice and play matches and enjoy the game they’ve loved,” says Kinjal Buch, President of California Cricket Academy.
“I would like to thank CCA for hosting a well-organized Corporate Cricket Tournament and giving a friendly yet competitive platform to the participating teams. We got the opportunity to uncover cricketing talent within the company and to bond as a team. In the process of competing, we were able to revive the passion for cricket. Once the games were over, rivalry fizzled into new-found friendships and respect for each other. In the end, Tech Mahindra ‘RISATORS’ demonstrated their talent, teamwork and trust to emerge as the winning team. We are very eager to participate in more such tournaments and continue our winning streak,” said Sumit Baluja, Vice President & Global Head of Google Alliance, Tech Mahindra.
“I want to thank CCA for providing a unique team building opportunity while supporting the social cause of youth cricket development, which is very dear to our heart. A corporate cup is very good for team building, inter company and intra company collaboration. Ruckus is committed to future Corporate Cricket tournaments,” said Biju Nair, Vice President at Ruckus.
Starting bright and early on Saturday, August 16th Wireless and Teradata Analytics match – which turned out to be a low-scoring game. Teradata scored only 75 in 20 overs and Ruckus won by 3 wickets in the 18th over with 14 balls to spare. Yogesh Ranade from Ruckus Wireless was declared Man of the match for taking 4 wickets.
Then ArKrit put Teradata to the test by opting to bat first in sweltering heat and scored whopping 141 in 20 overs. Now, in spite of a star-studded ArKrit team, Teradata Analytics stuck at the crease without giving ArKrit the pleasure of getting the opponents all-out. Captain Nitin Deo and his partner Chintan Sheth stuck at the crease for 8 overs and added 25 run partnership. ArKrit came out winners after a long grueling innings.
The last game of the day was between Los Gatos Lions and TechMahindra – which was dominated by TechMahindra’s strong hitting – with Rakesh Arora scoring 43. Then Kiran came roaring against the Lions and got them all-out in just 82 runs. Rakesh from Tech Mahendra was named Man of the Match.
On Sunday 17th August, once again starting at 8 am, Ruckus Wireless beat the Lions with a comfortable margin chasing 84 runs to qualify for finals easily. The highlight of that game was the hat-trick followed by immediate run-out by Dinesh Patil of Lions. Rishi Mehta from Ruckus was the declared Man of the Match.
In the afternoon on Sunday 17th, Teradata Analytics got another opportunity to try their luck against TechMahindra – but TechMahindra proved to excel with the bat scoring 154 in 20 overs with Kiran scoring 47 runs. Pramod, Kiran and Sumit once again dominated with excellent bowling that left the opposition constrained to 65 runs and entered the finals in style. Pramod Bisht from Tech Mahendra was declared Man of the Match.
The final was between TechMahindra – the run machine – and Ruckus Wireless – the tricky bowlers – in other words, it was a true battle between the bat and the ball. And as it turned out, it was once again proven that the short game of T20 is truly a batsman’s game. TechMahindra scored 140 with the help of 30 from Kiran and 34 from Vishal. They defeated Ruckus Wireless who managed to score only 72 runs. Kiran Keerthi was named MOM for the finals. At the end, Tech Mahendra won the battle to Lift the Ajit Tendulkar Cup.
At the award ceremony it was clear that the Man-of-the-Match awards, Best Batsman Award – Pramod Bisht, and the Best Bowler Award – Dinesh Patil were evenly distributed among all teams.
Thus 2014’s 2nd high note with increasing number of corporations taking part. We are looking forward to August, 2015 for added fun, more funds and keeping up with the CCA trend – more food!