The year 2021 is turning out to be a good one for wheelchair cricket and team Karnataka as they first played in the “Baadshah Cup” in January organized by kichcha sudeepa charitable association and With limited funding and resources the team still managed to participate in the First-ever IPL format tournament Divyang Premier League in Ludhiana from Feb 2- Feb 6, 2021
The tournament had two groups Group A ( Bangalore Eagles, UP Super Kings, Uttarakhand Tigers ) and Group B ( Punjab Royal’s, Mumbai Fighters, Delhi Strikers ).
The tournament kicked off with Bangalore Eagles taking on UP Super Kings batting first the Eagles scored 109/7 (12 Ov) all-round performance by the team secured an easy win by 31 runs, the second and the third match was played against Uttarakhand Tigers and the team won both the matches with ease by winning the first match by 71 runs and the second by 10 wickets, the 4th match of the league had to be abandoned due to rain, with 3 straight wins the team qualified for semifinals and they were just one step away in reaching finals, before that they had to face the Mumbai fighters who had a good run in the tournament.
Bangalore Eagles didn’t have a fond memory of being in the semis as in the 2nd nationals they lost to Punjab, but this time the team was very balanced and confident of making it through to the finals, batting first Mumbai fighters scored an above par score of 105/3 (10 Ov), eagles had a very tuff time while fielding as few of the members including the captain himself was sick and eagles needed a solid opening partnership to keep the team in the game but the top 3 guns of the team failed to give a good start resulting the team was struggling at 46/3 as they say, you can’t predict the result until the last ball and that is exactly what happened in this game later came the heroes of the game Manjunath with this brilliant cameo of 20(9 balls) and the captain’s fiery 19(7 balls) and Munuswamy playing a crucial knock of 17(12 balls) won the game with 9 balls to space with this Bangalore Eagles were just one step away from being crowned as the “ Champions of Divyang Premier League” on the other hand Punjab Royal’s had won against UP Super Kings making their way into the finals.
As many teams predicted the finals would be between Punjab vs Bangalore, yes they were bang on it happened to be them, batting first Bangalore got a dream start from the top order stitching up a partnership of 59/0 for 5 Ov and the middle order carried the scoring momentum till the end to put up 115/4 (10 Ov) on board, Punjab Royal’s got a blistering start of 90/0 till the 8th over until the momentum shifted back towards Bangalore when Gajendra was successful in taking wickets of both the openers after successive wickets the team was under tremendous pressure and they went on losing 3 wickets in 10 balls and the match was going down the wire but brilliant bowling effort by Gajendra and Hareesh sealed victory for Bangalore Eagles by 9 runs and the celebrations began in the Bangalore Eagles camp they were filled with joy and happiness on becoming the “ Champions of Divyang Premier League”.
Sagar from Bangalore Eagles was adjudged as the Most valuable player of the tournament (MVP)
Scorecard:
Thanks to all the players and coaching staff (Darshan, Vamshi), Dilip( Team Manager) who put their hearts and soul to make the team win.
Team sponsor scientific games, individual sponsors Dheeraj and Sudarshan Sharma, BS Sports & ISS Sports Arena for team jersey, individual sponsors to Manjunath from TCFM & Embassy Group, individual sponsor to Sagar from Synup.
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