Star India lift the MastersCup trophy in a thriller final against Accenture.
Star India and Accenture Consulting faced off for the Championship Title rights in the finals of the T20 Master’s Cup Edition 4 organized by ONEWORLD of SPORTS. The T20 Master’s Cup series of tournaments are one of the most prestigious cricket series for Corporates in Mumbai with a history dating back to 2009 and featuring some of the best cricketing grounds in the city. The 4th edition of the 2014-15 series saw 12 teams – Walt Disney , Media on, Deutsche bank, IDFC, Exim bank, Rave Tech, Axis risk consulting , Motilal Oswal , Richmond , DWS, Star and Accenture and after some tough and exciting cricket in both the league and knockout rounds, Accenture and Star India were the final 2 standing. The finals were held at the scenic Dilip Vengsarkar Foundation Cricket Academy at Mahul.
What a cracker of a match. An expected finale finish. Just when you think that the game is tilting towards one team, the balance shifts and is not restored till the third last ball of the match is bowled, which is a wide! And that is how Star TV won the match and the Mastercup edition 4. This was a match for brave hearts. The number of impact players in both sides and “never-say-die” attitude is what made it a perfect finish to the tournament.
Accenture went to bat first and recovered remarkably from a slow start to end with a very healthy 154 on the board in their allotted 20 overs losing 7 batsmen in the process. Most of the top and middle order batsmen contributed to the score but it required a Mukesh special to provide a much needed boost to Accenture innings. Mukesh hammered Star TV bowlers for 39 runs in just 20 balls with three hits over the fence. Opener Siddharth scored a valuable 36. Star TV bowler Pritish picked up two wickets whereas Manish, Naik and Randhir shared a wicket each.
After restricting Accenture to a modest total, Star TV went in with a strategy of saving the wickets early on and attack in the second half of the chase. However, Accenture had other plans. Star lost a wicket each on the first ball of 4,5,6 and 7th overs and were left reeling at 35/4 with little hope of saving the match and lifting the cup. However things changed after the drinks for Star as Balvinder and Pritish clobbered 32 runs in the next 3 overs. Balvinder was caught out for an excellent 35 off just 20 balls but not before he had injected a new life into the match.
Chants of “arrey bhaiya chootey lagan” and “ganpati bappa morya” were getting louder in the Star camp as only 55 were required off 46 balls.
It was down to 15 of 12 and then 9 of 6 and suddenly the match had somehow conspired to build a pressure cooker situation with only the 2 umpires in the center displaying a serene calm. With 4 runs off off the first 3 deliveries, 5 was required off the next 3 when a routine coverdrive somehow managed to elude a diving Accenture fielder and find the boundary ropes. 1 run, 2 deliveries and 2 wickets as Nilesh from Accenture perhaps hoped for a magical 2 wickets – alas the delivery itself was declared a wide as Nilesh put everything into the delivery but missed the line.
Match – Star India wins the One World of Sports Mastercup Edition 4
Match Report – Courtesy Ashutosh Goel from One World of Sports
