SPL: “Chennai stars” is the 2008 winner

September 13, 2008

Finals need equally poised teams and nail-biting finishes. Both of them were no less in the finals between “Chennai stars” and “Minnal”. Having to skip the first Saturday after the second semi-finals in-lieu-of long weekend and the second Saturday afterwards due to hurricane Hanna, the teams were die-hard to play and get over with it on September 13th. Even with the previous day’s few but steady showers dampening the usual “sand” pitch, the teams decided to take the finals on the new “grass” pitch. Pitch report was obviously pointing to the fact that it’s going to be unevenly bouncy and not so predictable, but this time the off-side and on-side are equally balanced in length and breadth and what we saw was a finals on the “ovals”

Pre-game meetings between the team included a “Jersey” wearing ceremony with “Minnal” donning the “grey jersey” and the “Chennai stars” the “black jerseys”. Dozens of doughnuts were devoured and coffees poured into the stomach to get the extra glucose needed for the fiery finals.

First match:

“Minnal” won the toss and going by the pitch report, they resorted to a safe decision by electing to bowl. “Chennai stars” did not have a choice but to test with the “grass” pitch. First five overs were haunting for “Chennai stars” as the wickets started falling apart with score not ticking. One end was secured and the other end seemed to be dangling. Then they slowly recovered, holding up with a couple of good partnerships, few over the boundaries and some quick running between wickets. When they are done, they had scored a comfortable 82 runs.

“Minnal” started of quickly scoring a bunch of runs in the second over utilizing the part time bowlers which “Chennai stars” had to use. But the momentum slowly diminished when they lofted the balls for sixes which in turn ended up in the hands of the fielders in the boundary. They fell short by 11 runs and thus handing over the first match win to “Chennai stars”.

Second match:

Here again, “Chennai stars” failed (or luck enough) to win the toss and but this time they had to field first. “Minnal” gave a steady start cruising up 65 in 15 overs. “Chennai stars” batted up to win the match and take the trophy but got holed up in giving quick wickets, and the credit goes to the tight bowling and fielding by “Minnal”. Match ended up with the obvious result of extending the game to a third match decider even though a quick sprinter in the end didn’t help “Chennai stars”

Third match:

This is a short one, with 8 overs for each team, a miniature version of 20/20. Again, “Minnal” won the toss elected to bat and utilized the tired “Chennai stars” to make quick doubles and daring running between the wickets to raise the stake to 51 runs for the cup. “Chennai stars” responded well, even with wickets falling off. The boosters came in the way of some good boundaries and sixes in the middle order, taking them to the trophy in the last over.

Awards:

Winners of SPL trophy: Chennai Stars

Austin, Balaji, Gopi, Govind, Jayan (c), Kamal, Kumar, Lakshu, Prasath, Raja, Ramadoss, Siva, Snowsson, Thiyagu, Zenith

Runner-up: Minnal

Anbu (c), Janaki, Martin, Oli, Prakash, Raghu, Rajesh, Rajkumar, Sachin, Sakthi, Senthil, Sriram, Yuvaraj

Best Batsman of the tournament: Sakthi

Best Bowler of the tournament: Gopi

Best All-rounder of the tournament: Thiyagu

Tournament score card

Finals photos