NIIT lifts the Cyber Cup

Delhi-based NIIT Ltd successfully defended its title when it won The Eighth Cyber Media Cricket Tournament for The Cyber Cup. In the final, which was a 30 over a side affair, it defeated Gurgaon-based Efunds International India (P) Ltd by two wickets in a very close game with just one ball to spare.

Efunds won the toss and decided to bat first. It had a rather disastrous start as it lost one of its opener Sanjay Joshi in the third over itself when the score was 13. The second wicket partnership of 51 runs between Mohd Awais and Vikas Sharma in eight overs steadied the innings. After that Efunds lost wickets at regular intervals before its captian Jaspreet Singh took it upon himself, to give his team a respectable total.

What followed was an exhilirating batting display by Singh who literally pulverized the NIIT bowling attack. At the end of the stipulated 30 overs, he remained unbeaten on exactly 100 runs scored in just 56 balls containing six 4s and 10 sixes. Efunds finished with 232 for 7 with 66 runs having come in the last five
overs.

In reply, NIIT got an electrifying start with its openers-Rajesh Varshney and Jeeshu Ganguly-scoring 53 runs in just six overs. But in the seventh over, it lost both the openers to Amit Kapoor. However, that brought Ashish Prasad and Hitesh Budhiraja together who put on a partnership of 122 runs in under 15
overs.

Then disaster struck with both loosing their wickets to Awais in the same over. After that wickets kept falling at regular intervals and it boiled down to the last over in which NIIT had to get five runs and Efunds had to get two wickets. But finally it was NIIT, which kept its nerves and won the thrilling final with just one ball to spare. For his brilliant 100 runs and also taking one catch, Singh was declared the man-of-the-match.

Brief score: Efunds 232 for 7 in 30 overs (Jaspreet 100 not out, Awais 32, Vikas 25, Rajesh 2 for 38) lost to NIIT 233 for 8 in 29.5 overs (Ashish P 68, Hitesh 50, Rajesh 47, Pankaj 2 for 27, Amit 2 for 41, Awais 2 for 54) by 2 wickets.

J Vishnu of Efunds who took 9 wickets by giving away just 157 runs, was declared the best bowler of the tournament. The best batsman award went to Vikas Sharma of Efunds who scored a total of 285 runs including one century and one fifty at an average of 47.5. For scoring 315 runs, capturing 7 wickets and taking four catches, Ranjit Narayan of HECL was adjudged the player of the tournament.

The award ceremony was presided over by Shyam Malhotra, Director of Cyber Media (India) Ltd. In his address, he touched upon the history of the tournament, how it started and how it had evolved over the last eighth years and some interesting sidelights.

Earlier, in a match to decide the second runner up, HECL tied with STMicro.

Score: HECL 155 all out in 30 overs (Amit 48, Madhur 29, Indranil 4 for 16, Parveen 3 for 31) tied with
STMicro 155 all out in 30 overs (Rajesh 54, Mohinder 47, Murthy 3 for 22, Harsh 3 for 38, Ajay 2 for 27).

Rajesh Narwal of STMicro was declared the man-of-the-match.