Grady Thunders (Grady) and Bengal Tigers of Houston (BTH) squared off in final on 20th July 2019 and it resulted in Grady winning by 64 runs and being crowned as TCC
Fall 2019 Professional League Champions which is for Divn II teams. This was Grady’s 2nd championship win in their 3rd final. For BTH, this was their 1st final. Grady dominated the tournament winning straight 7 matches after losing their first 3 matches while BTH had dominated 4 out of 7 matches on their way to big final.
Grady won the toss and elected to bat. BTH had a close decision in their favor in second over and inside powerplay they removed Vipul and Pervinder to put Grady on 12/2. The situation got worse when Zafar got an inside edge to get bowled for the score to be 36/3. Grady’s dependable Aveg Kadian joined consistent Imran, at the crease with a huge task of getting innings back on track from 3 early wickets down. Both batsmen batted sensibly rotating the strike and absorbing the pressure created by early wickets. Just when the batmen were settling in Imran got out to BTH’s Imran when Shahad held on to a straight forward catch in the deep for 81/4. Innings was rebuilt again by Mudit and Aveg. Mudit got out in the quest of making quick runs, while Aveg continued to play steady and taking attack to the opposition targeting their key bowlers with timely boundaries and an occasional sixer. He continued his rich form completing a well deserved fifty of just 31 balls. This was his 2nd fifty in the finals and 3rd 40+ score in last 3 matches. BTH came back in patches as Grady scored 39 runs of last 5 overs and 81 in the last 10. Ravi, Abhinav and Venky pitched in with contributions towards end to take the score to a respectable and competitive 134 for loss of 7 wickets in the first half. Aveg finished the final with 64 not out taking his tally to 156 in finals getting out only once in 3 innings. Sany was the pick of the bowlers with 3 wickets followed by Mohammad with 2 wickets and Imran and Shabab with a wicket each.
Grady took the field determined to defend 135. The bowlers Mudit and Krishna were on top of their game from the start bowling good line and length and putting openers on the back foot immediately. Shium departed first caught behind by Ravi. Mudit followed with another one and BTH were 11/2. Abhinav started well with the quick wicket of Sany. BTH got into a bit of trouble losing 3 wickets on a tough chase for just 28 runs. Sreedhar and Pervinder bowled a tidy and neat over in between controlling the flow of runs. They combined to bowl 4 overs for 15 runs for 2 wickets. Grady bowled and fielded like Champions holding tight lines with tight fielding. BTH needing 65 runs to win championship and with 4 wickets in hand and ran through Abhinav & Krishnan who took 4 wickets in 11 balls with no further addition to the score. Ravi was the star for Grady taking a record breaking 8 catches behind stumps. For Grady Krishnan and Abhinav took 3 wickets each, Mudit took 2 wickets and Sreedhar and Pervinder took 1 wicket each.
Grady marked their return to TCC league in 4 years with a title in Professional League.
The game was followed by prize distribution ceremony arranged by TCC and facilitated by Jagadish Biradar. Krishnan Narayanan, captain of Grady was presented with championship trophy and Sadrul Amin, captain of BTH with the runners up trophy. Aveg was adjudged man of the match for scoring 64 match winning runs.
For the tournament awards, S A Sany (BTH) was awarded best batsman with 258 runs. Krishnan Narayanan (Grady), Vishal Kalal (CJCC) and Rajneesh Gupta (BBCC) were best bowler for taking 17 wickets each. Vinodh Vemireddy (CJCC) was Best wicketkeeper for 29 dismissals. Mudit Shukla (Grady) was best all-rounder with 228 runs and 13 wickets. Aveg was the MVP for the tournament for his consistent performance throughout tournament Special award to Shahzad Ahmed (BTH) for Hat-trick during league stage.