While the world is watching the Cricket World Cup matches and all eyes towards UK, when India as a nation and others sleep, breath and eat Cricket, ladies in UK decided to not just be spectator but join in as integral player, get into the skin of being a cricketer with the IIW All Ladies Ambika Trophy Cricket Championship, in the second year of its running. And no doubt, they did just that with a power packed high voltage energy, brimming passion, over burst of emotions and lastly intense desire to take the Trophy!!
The initiative brought forth an amazing revelation that there is so much there to express and tap!! The Josh and spirit to play to win was crazy!!! Each of the players was remarkably talented and full of love for cricket!!
As Edmund Blunden says, Cricket to us was more than play; it is worship in the summer sun. A glimpse of the above was seen the day of the Tournament, 23rd June, 2019 at the historic Gymkhana.
IIW is all about working towards opportunities and acknowledging talent!! IIW cricket Match at the prestigious and historic Indian Gymkhana becomes the hottest topic amongst the Indian women in UK. With lots of combination, fermentation five teams began their three month long journey to attempt to take home.
The Chief Guest of the event was Honourable MP Virendra Sharma and the Guests of Honours were Mr Sutantar Soni the Trustee and Honorary board member of the historic Indian Gymkhana Club, Mr Satya Minhaas Former Chairman of the MET Police Hindu Association and the Co- Chairperson, Hindu Council UK and Councillor Bandana Chopra. The event was supported by Councillor Prabhakar Kaza and who was also the special guest along with the Founder and President of Uttar Pradesh Community Association Mr Madhuresh Mishra and General Secretary Mr Virendra Mishra
The Umpires were Suresh Mangalagiri, Dr Chandran, Mr Sumit Dahiya and Mr Rushcil Agarwal. The Match will be telecast by Matv Channel soon. The masala in the chai Mr Baljinder Singh Rathour and Gaurav Bansal who handled the commentary kept the spectators interested and glued. Mr Vijay Kachallia and Shivani were the scorers who didn’t budge a bit and kept focus throughout!! The presence of Mrs Anju Wadhwa Narang, Cultural Secretary of Punjabi Society of British Isles added a special flavour to the event. The five teams were-
BLEED BLUE:Tejal Shah Captain, Mangal Bhalerao Vice Captain, Priyanka Bhargav , Hetal Vyas, Usha Parmar, Swati Kirve, Aarti chokshi, Divya Chari, Payal Jalan, Shital Solanki, Shivika Upadhyay
RISE AND SHINE: Pallavi Sundareshan (Captain), Anitha Nomula (Vice Captain), Kiran Peddireddi , Lokamanya Kota Rekha D Cunha, Arti Thakur, Meenakshi Shetty, Gauri Utturkar , Rama Tirunagari, Prashanthi Tirunagari, Hema Prakash, Durga Jalasutram
KENT KNOCKERS:Etika Tayal, Pallavi Bhaskar, Namitha Chickmagalur (Vice-captain), Meera Srinivas, Umashree Chandrashekar, Aarti Gaikwad , Manisha Singh, Radhika Nair, Ramya Bhadri, Kasturi Mahendrakar Sarika Handa (Captain), Spurita
WOMEN WARRIORS:Heena Jain (captain), Mansi Behl (vice-captain), Renu Rathod, Ranjita Mishra, Alka Bhayani, Seema Khandelwal, Samidha Jhaveri , Isha Gupta, Pooja Kamath, Shilpa Chaudhary, Shradha Megharaj
HURRICANE HEROINES:Deepa Vaswani, Sunitha, Vaishali Nagpal, Seema, Swati, Komal Ganeriwala, Beena, Ruchika Bharti (Captain), Rashmi Razdan (Vice-Captain), Jyoti Vekaria, Binal
The highest scorer was Batsman Tejal Shah, who played the Captains innings by scoring the maximum 80 runs. The final match was played between Bleed Blue and Kent Knockers. Finally Kent Knockers won the match and lifted the Ambika Trophy. All in all, three Quarter Finals, two Semi Finals and one Final Match was played. Each Match consisted of Eight overs and was played with a soft ball.
The tournament lived up to the purpose for which it was started – bonding amongst ladies as they were meeting often to practice , new friendships, fitness as well as rekindle the subdued interest and passion among mothers/ wives who had lost touch with the game due to family responsibilities and yearned to hold the bat again.
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