ACA T20 Division 2 League: SCCG are the CHAMPIONS!

#sccgcricket #ACAT20League #champions #letthecelebrationsbegin

The SCCG wins the finals of the ACA T20 Division 2 league 2020 against SLCV by 9 wickets

On 20.09.2020, the SCCG played against the visitors SLCV at their home ground Ballpark Graz in the finals of the ACA T20 Division 2 League. The SLCV captain Mansoor won the toss and elected to bat first.

The SLCV opening batsmen faced a very disciplined and accurate bowling from SCCG bowlers Shoaib and Adil, and runs came only in the form of singles and doubles. The batsmen also showed their patience and mettle playing only the right deliveries and starting off slow. While Shoaib bowled swinging in deliveries to the batsmen amazingly, Adil attacked with sheer pace and perfect lines. The fielding by the SCCG players also was top notch, with not even a single misfield. After a blistering first spell of four overs, the SCCG still remained wicketless with a few close chances. Then came Shirzad, the most energetic player in the SCCG team and his bashful unpredictable deliveries, and he scalped the first wicket with a sensational running-back-and-diving catch off his own bowling, removing the SLCV captain Mansoor. This might have been the best and the most difficult catch of the whole tournament. Pleased and invigorated by this effort, the SCCG players and bowlers were putting in even more effort to pressurize the SLCV batsmen. At the end of power play, the SLCV were 39/1 with runs meagerly coming out of their bats. End of power play meant that it was time for the magical spin spell by Jimmy and Raman. Though in terms of wickets it was not as magical as it always is, Jimmy and Raman completely stopped the runflow of SLCV with their amazing performance and gave just 5 runs in the first two overs. Raman got the first breakthrough in the spell in the form of a high catch by the captain Adil, but jimmy came back in his second over to trap the opener Asif leg before the wicket with a quick variation in delivery. Raman ended up with the best figures in the finals with 3/21 in his 4 overs, while jimmy 1/16 in his 4 overs. The pace attack of sherzad, adil and shoaib finally restricted the SLCV to 119/8 in the allotted 20 overs. Sherzad ended up with 2/24, while shoaib with 1/21.

With a requirement of 6 r.p.o., the SCCG openers Jimmy and Vikram batted comfortably, scoring boundaries only off the few bad balls. The SLCV bowling attack was cut short in the 3rd over, when Nawaz bowled three consecutive high bouncers and was banned accordingly as per the ACA regulations by the umpires. By then, both Jimmy and Vikram looked in good touch, and there was rarely any occasion that the ball was left alone. The captain Zalmai took up the unfinished over, and went on to scalp the wicket of Vikram. This was unfortunate, as there was a distraction and vikram was a second late to stop the bowler from bowling the ball. There was a small discussion by the umpires but Vikram was sent off the field, and the delivery was declared as legal. UFF! so much happening on the field! Disappointed, vikram walked back with a score of 16 in just 9 balls with a four and a six to his name. Karthik went in at number 3 and played the role of strike rotation, as Jimmy was already in great touch. Karthik dealt with singles and doubles, while jimmy dealt mainly in boundaries. This arrangement went largely in favour of the SCCG as runs were flowing consistently, while the SLCV could not manage to take wickets. There were a few missed chances in the 3rd slip and gully region for the SLCV, but they failed to convert them into wickets. Jimmy and Karthik went on to chase the target and remained undefeated at 53* and 30* respectively. The SCCG had chased down the target within 12.5 overs, maintaining a 9r.p.o. runrate through out the innings.

This was a prime example of why cricket is called a team game. Impeccable committment and effort by all team members – shoaib, sherzad, adil, raman with the ball, Vikram and Karthik with the bat, Jimmy with both the bat and the ball, Waqas, Shyam, Pradeep Venki, and Saeed in the field, and finally Pratik, Gulfam and Akash off the field led to this amazing victory. Not to mention our energetic and enthusiastic supporters Supriya and Seema – they were there throughout the match for us cheering their lungs out! The SCCG family had not just made it, but had made it possible with amazing effort and performance. The SCCG are champions of the ACA T20 division 2 league in their first ever appearance in the tournament.

The prizes were given away for the man of the match, best batsman, best bowler, best fielder and man of the series out of which Jimmy won them all except the best fielder, where the wicket keeper of UNCC Sanjiv won that with an additional 4 stumpings and 2 runouts to his name. The runners up were given their trophies, and finally the winners trophy and medals were distributed to the SCCG!

SCCG star jimmy with all his silverware – man of the match, best batsman, bets bowler and MVP of the tournament

As always, special mention and thanks to the umpires and match officials at Ballpark Graz for organizing, and the ACA Chairman Ashfaq and Competition Manager Quinton for driving all the way to Graz to officiate the match and make this match in Graz possible! Also, special mention to our off-field supporters who supported us online in every match!

We are also thankful for our sponsors Granola (https://www.granola-company.at/) for their support on the wonderful SCCG kits, and Redbull Austria for the redbull cans they gifted us at the beginning of the tournament.