A well scripted clinical win in Mid-Day Gujarati cricket cup (T-10) finals by defending champions Charator Rukhi
Mid-Day Gujarati cup, a trophy which every Gujju cricketer aspires to lay his hands on. The journey to finals is never easy and only the best teams make it to the final round. So the date was set on 14 Feb 2015, Central Railway Ground, Parel in Mumbai between same opponents as 2013-Defending champions Charator Rukhi against Kutchi Lohana. Before we take you through the details of this epic finals, let us brief you about some unique features of Mid-Day T10 Cup. For starters, the finals are comprised of 2 innings like a test match, a test match with 2 innings of 10 overs each. Every 5th over is a super over, meaning every run scored gets doubled and each wicket means minus 10 runs to the batting side total. Two consecutive sixes gets converted to 21 runs and every 3 consecutive fours scored gets converted to 18 runs. Maiden over hurts the most, since it also means minus 10 runs from batting total. Now that’s a lot of mathematics to take care of in a cricket match but this is what makes MID-DAY T10 tournament unique. Well then be ready for the journey now…
Kutchi Lohanas skipper Jayesh Thakkar won the toss and elected to bat in the first innings. A decision which never looked wrong even for a moment. Kutchi Lohana openers Kapil 20 (11balls) and Kirtan Manek 41 (21 balls) got off to a flying start, scoring 67 runs of the first 4 overs. KL team would have expected a total of 125-130 given the flying start however good controlled bowling by CR team restricted the total to 99 . There was no stand out performance by CR’s bowlers in the first innings. First innings was completely dominated by KL and everyone almost wrote off the CR team.
Given the imposing score of 99, one would have imagined some complacency by KL bowlers however it wasn’t so. CR batsmen started off very cautiously and they were placed at 25 for 1 in 4 overs. KL captain threw the ball to his trusted lieutenant – Vishal Ruparel a lefty medium pace bowler who has earned the reputation of being the super over specialist. And he didn’t let his team down and picked up 2 wickets in the super over which meant minus 20 runs and CR total was reduced to a embarrassing score of 5 runs in 5 overs at the loss of 2 wickets. There was an air of supremacy in KL camp and obviously so. However another lefty player had other plans in store. A lethal opener batsman Chetan Solanki never looked out of control. He maintained a very low profile in the first 5 overs only to unleash a furry of sixes and fours. His first target was Mukesh, a left arm spinner who was hammered for 19 runs in his very first over. Second victim was the speedester Dhruv who finished with a dismal performance of 29 runs off 2 overs. To chetan’s delight, Mukesh came in to bowl his second over. Mukesh finished off with 37 runs off 2 overs. Chetan was not out on 74 from 31 balls. Captain Khimiji Makwana offered good support to chetan from other end and sacrificed his wicket in the tail end of the innings. CR team ended their first innings total at 94 only 5 runs behind KL. Who would have imagined a total of 94 runs when they were struggling at 5o-5Runs-2 wickets. It was an innings completely dominated by Chetan Solanki who got a thunderous applause for his 74 not out with 7 sixes and 5 Fours.
Kutchi Lohanas team had a slow start to the 3 innings and their batsmen seemed to get into a shell and never came out of that zone. Skipper Khimji deployed his resources brilliantly and operated only with spinners in the first phase. It was a good disciplined bowling by CR spinners and the stand out performance was another left arm spinner – Nitin Solanki who finished with remarkable figures of 10 runs in 2 overs and 3 key wickets. Kirtan Manek tried to offer some resistance but it was never enough. Kutchi Lohana eneded their 3 innings with a total of 60 runs and earlier lead of 5 runs, setting a target of 66 off 10 overs. 
It seemed like a small target given the form of CR batsmen. Chetan Solanki as usual lived true to his reputation and scored a nicely crafted 27 runs off 24 balls. He was supported well by Naresh who was not out on 20 off 21 balls. Chetan achieved the target by hitting a huge six over long on.
In the end, the title was won by the most deserving team – Charotar Rukhi.
