The Cannons have won the 2022 HCL Division 1 Finals in a two game sweep, claiming this trophy for the 2nd time, two years to the day after doing it for the first time. Winning the T20 league in addition to the 40 Over League last week is a great result for the club and caps an awesome end to the season after some mid-season struggles. Only qualifying for the semi final by virtue of net run rate, we become the first team to ever win Div 1 after finishing in 3rd place!
Game 2 saw Sagar Mandhan win the toss and again electing to field first. East Coast scored 46 for the first wicket, but importantly took 7.2 overs to do so. Zeeshan Ansari would be first to strike, and then found himself in the action again next over taking a great catch off Ajay Deb's bowling. These two engineered a collapse of 6 for 16 between them, Zee taking 4/10 off 4 (his third successive 4 wicket haul in trophy winning games, following the 2020 Div 1 and 2022 40 Over wins), and Ajay capping off a great series with 2/17 off 4. East Coast fought their way to 7/110 off 20, Shadab Ahmed picking up a late wicket, extending his single season club record to 33.
After a stress free chase yesterday in Game 1, today would see the opposite, our top order falling to 6/31 after 7 overs. Fortunately for us, we had the cool heads of Daksh Talwar and Zee at the crease, and they assessed the situation and executed superbly. Together, they put on 73 runs in 73 balls without a single boundary. With a spread field, accurate bowling and the situation not allowing for the loss of another wicket, both bats used brilliant placement and aggressive running to minimize the dot balls and convert numerous ones into twos. Daksh would fall on the first ball of the last over for 53 off 52, leaving 7 to win off 5 balls. Sagar joined Zee and both scored singles to leave the equation 5 off 3. Sagar then hit a ball straight to mid wicket and ran what would have been a tight single, however the pressure got to the fielder who over ran it and allowed a second run. 3 off 2. Next ball, Sagar almost finished it with a well struck blast to deep mid wicket that was only just stopped by the fielder, but was able to come back for an easy second. Game tied. Last ball, he calmly stoked a low full toss back down the ground and scored the championship winning run, a well deserved accolade for the work he has put in during his first season as a full time captain. Zee would end unbeaten on 21 to cap off a Player of the Finals effort. Scorecard
A day earlier, the underdog Cannons ambushed East Coast with a clinical display to take the series lead. Bowling first after losing the toss, tight opening spells from Shadab and Daksh resulted in a pressure induced run out of their captain with the score on 26 in the 6th over. Ajay Deb then came on and bowled a great 4 over spell of accurate fast medium, taking 2/24 and not letting their deep middle order gain any momentum. Once Ajay was done, Priyank Trivedi would replace him from that end and continued the good work taking 3/23 off his 3 overs. Shadab wrapped up the innings taking 2 in 2 in the last over, East Coast all out 127 off 19.3.
Starting our innings on 5 courtesy of some penalty runs gifted to us by our dissent prone opposition (a short run call enraged their batsman so much that he turned the loss of one run into six, much to the delight of the vocal Cannons supporters!), Danish Khan overcame the run out loss of his opening partner by blasting 7 massive sixes in his 31 ball 57. We were flying at 10 runs an over, but at 4/77 there was still work to be done. In a prelude to their heroics of the following day, Daksh and Zee joined forces and calmly knocked off 37 of the remaining 51 runs to ease the tension. With 14 required and 7 overs remaining, steady would have done it, but Zee only needed 4 balls to get the job done, wrapping up a 5 wicket win with 38 balls to spare, and completely change the narrative of the 2022 season. Suddenly, a team previously thought of as almost unbeatable were now at our mercy. Scorecard