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KAW Cricket Tournament 2009

Kerala Royals Triumphs in an All Rookie Final

22 Aug 2009: The 3rd KAW cricket tournament was dominated by the rookies upsetting both top seeded teams in the semifinals. On a perfect day for cricket, Kerala Royals secured Kerala Talkies trophy with an easy win over Gods Own Pattalam.

Six teams participated in the tournament. 2008 winner Pulikoottam and runner up Seattle Chekavers were given walkover straight into the semifinals. Rest of the 4 teams played the preliminary rounds.

In the first match Gods Own Pattalam bowled out Kavalachattambis for 52. Though Kavalachattambis resisted, couple of dropped catches sent them out of the tournament. In the second match Seattle Royals surrendered without offering much fight to Kerala Royals. Kerala Royals scored the required 23 runs in just 3 overs.

A toss was drawn to decide the semifinal fixtures between the winners of the preliminary rounds. Gods own Pattalam won the toss and decided to play against Seattle Chekavers.

In the first semifinals between Gods Own Pattalam and Seattle Chekavers, Gods Own Pattalam got a striking start from Bonnie and Renish and at one point it was felt they will score 100+ in 12 overs. A good over from Saibee brought the game back to Chekavers and another good over from Renjith got Pattalam all out for a modest target of 60. While batting, Chekavers suffered an early set back of losing Santhosh through a run out. Captain Ashley also fell cheaply. Other than the tail-enders none of the Chekavers offered much fight. Last wicket partnership between Prakash and Rajesh took the scoreboard to 37 in the stipulated 12 overs.

The second semifinals between the reigning champions Pulikoottam and Kerala Royals witnessed some enchanting cricket. After winning the toss, Kerala Royals captain Dinesh Nambiar elected to bat. Unlike previous years Pulikoottam struggled to find sharpness in their bowling. Royals kept a cruising speed of 5 runs per over without much damage to their wicket tally. In the 11th over Rakesh hit two massive sixes to boost the score to 63. A better final over from Joe restricted royals to 66. Chasing 67, Pulikoottam lost their key batsman, Joe, in the very second over. Tight bowling spells from Royals, especially Rakesh, kept Pulikoottam far from the required run rate. Captain Ojus showed some resilience but was never enough to turnaround the game. Pulikoottam completed the overs with 58 runs on board losing by 8 runs. In the 3 year old history of KAW cricket this is the first time ever Pulikoottam losing a match. Pulikoottam lost their best chance to secure Kerala Talkies Trophy as well. A team has to win three consecutive times to permanently keep the trophy, till then it will keep rolling.

The final between Kerala Royals and Gods Own Pattalam started around 4:45 PM. Both the captains agreed to play 12 overs a side against the option of 16 overs a side. Kerala Royals again won the toss and elected to bat. It was Arun Chacko's day. Arun kept the score board ticking with his unique shots all around the field. His unbeaten 30 runs helped Royals to reach the highest score of the day, 67. In reply Gods Own Pattalam started crumbling from the early overs itself. Though Boney played wonderful innings' in the previous two matches, he failed to score in the finals. None of Gods Own Pattalam could resist the tight bowling line up of Kerala Royals. They ended up their innings with just 26 on the board.

Congratulations Kerala Royals!!!

KAW Executive Committee would like to THANK the following for the overall success of our cricket tournament:

• ARCL for sponsoring the ground and cricket balls. This helped us a lot.
• "Thattukada" volunteers for serving Kerala dishes and keeping players hydrated and energized for the whole day.
• Kerala Talkies for sponsoring the trophy way back in 2007. The trophy will roll till one team wins it three consecutive times. Kerala Talkies was a group of KAW members who were bringing movies to Seattle Area during 2006 and 2007. This community service was handed over to KAW in 2008.
• All the players who played with the right sportsman spirit to make the event a grand success. We appreciate the professionalism shown by Kavalachattambis and Gods Own Pattalam to find another field to play the first match as the designated field was not available till 10 am. Rather than complaining, trying to diligently solve the problem was really praiseworthy.
• All the community members who showed up to cheer for the teams.