Airtel thrashes Idea A to win the inaugural Telecom Premier League
The Telecom Premier League that saw the leading telecom giants locking horns against each other on the cricket field concluded on a high on 5th June, when Airtel took on Idea A at Air India Sports Club, Mumbai in the final match of TPL. Batting first, Airtel posted a mammoth 215 in 10 runs scoring at over an unbelievable 20 runs per over. Jitesh Purabia played a blinder of an innings smashing 91 runs off 30 cherries, including four boundaries and a whopping 10 sixes in his blistering knock. Purabia was simply unstoppable and made a mockery of Idea A’s bowling. Mayank Shirke was the other batsman to contribute with a quick-fire 66 off 27 balls, hitting five boundaries and as many sixes. It was a disastrous outing for Idea A bowlers as they were thrown all around the park. Vikas Sharma and Paresh Shetty picked up one wicket each.
Chasing a magnificent 216 in just 60 balls was always going to be a daunting task for Idea A and it did them no good when they lost both their openers; Vikas Sharma and Paresh Shetty cheaply for 4 and 6 respectively. Rushi Patel was the lone fighter scoring 33 runs off 24 balls. After putting up a solid performance with the bat, Airtel bowlers stepped up to restrict Idea A for a paltry 92-8 in 10 overs. Arif Rakhangi, Kalpesh Mehta and Mayank Shirke bowled well in tandem to account for two scalps apiece. Airtel registered a comprehensive victory against Idea A by a huge 123 runs.
Jitesh Purabia (164 runs in 5 matches; 91 runs off 30 balls in the final) was declared as the Best Batsman as well as the Man of the Match for his scintillating knock and was also awarded for hitting maximum sixes in the tournament. Daiwat Rane (Airtel) won the Best Fielder accolade with Rushi Patel (Idea A, 8 wickets in 5 matches) bagging the Best Bowler prize.
While speaking to cricketgraph.com about TPL, Gayathrie from IBM who was the co-sponser alongwith Giesecke and Devrient, said, “Telcom Premier League seemed to be a good platform for many reasons. At IBM, our constant endeavour is to engage with our stakeholders (employees/customers) on a deeper, human level. Our focus is to delight them with the right experience at the perfect moment to strengthen engagements and nurture the relationship. We (IBM) are always looking for such opportunities and the TPL seemed to be perfect fit where we could take this thought forward and interact with our clients via an informal yet competitive/fun setting”.
TPL was a grand success as it not only brought the big telecom players on a single platform but also encouraged them to showcase their cricketing talent.
