Visiting Indian professional side Maruti Marble are attributing their stellar performance at the just concluded 17th Shree Cutchi Leva Patel Samaj Six-A-Side cricket tournament to team cohesion and consistency.
The visitors beat Stray Lions of Kenya by 12 runs to lift the coveted trophy won last year by Kanbis. And for the second year running, Stray Lions wrapped up the prestigious tournament as runner up.
The visiting Maruti outfit are in the country for the Gansham T10 Cricket Tournament slated for June 8th to June 22nd, at Cutchi Leva Samaj grounds in Nairobi West.
After the loss to Maruti, Stray Lions Captain Tanzeel Sheikh candidly admitted that his boys lost to a better side. Tanzeel explained: “In cricket you win and lose some, our opponents fielded really well. The essence for the future is just to be composed and plan well, and we will be good to go.”
Maruti Marble captain Kishan Varsani who doubled up as the wicket keeper said: “It’s such a cheerful and memorable experience for us, winning this tournament in Kenya. The boys were truly consistent on the bat and fielded really well, cohesion and focus paid off, at least this is a great start for us in Kenya well in time for the Gansham T10 Cricket Tournament. We thank the Samaj community for giving us this opportunity to prove ourselves.”
En-route to the final, Stray Lions beat SCLPS Samaj Mombasa by seven runs whilst Maruti defeated Swamibapa A by a similar score in the other semi final.
Swamibapa’s wicket keeper and opener Rushabh Patel scored the highest number of sixes (8). Maruti’s Hiren Kerai scored the highest number of runs (92).
The highest number of wickets and catches went to Team BFF’s Haeshil Varsani and Mansukh Jesani respectively.
Harshil of BFF was also named the most valuable player in the tournament with 14.3 ranking points . Hosts Cutch Leva A were eliminated by Maruti in quarters after a 7- wickets loss.
Samaj Sports Secretary Raj Bhudia: “Every year becomes a change in itself for cricket, this year we have witnessed incredible improvements; like Swamibapa B who came up all the way to reach the quarter finals, had to play two Super Overs and unfortunately to miss a semis’ slot.”
Raj continued: “We might get new innovations coming in future tournaments, previously we used to play knockouts straight away, but from the last year we have changed them into group stages, a change we have adapted to allow the teams coming to get a number of more games to get what they used to get in the previous years.”
Rakesh Rao Group CEO – Crown Paints Kenya Plc, on his part, said: “This is our part of corporate social responsibility, we associate our brand with sport because they support us, we support sport and indeed the Samaj Six-A- Side because it is a way of engaging our youth and ensuring a healthy future.”
