SUPERCATS lifted the Mohan Shopping Centre Cup on Sunday October 20, at Freedom Square following their 61-run victory over Vijay in a match watched by Mr Mohan Chetty of the sponsors.

After the introduction of the two teams to Mr Mohan, the final got under way. Supercats, batting first, did not look comfortable against the opening attack of Vijay. In the third over, Vasudev drew first blood by clean-bowling Raja for 2. In his next over, he removed dangerman Dipak for 9. The total came 27 for 3 wickets after 6 overs when Kaushal removed Dr Velu for 3.

At this stage, Tim joined Sanjeev and with the very first ball they faced, they started repairing the inning. They took the total to 72 before Tim was out for 15. The total became 85 for 6 soon with Sanjeev and Anand back in the pavilion after making 30 and 21 respectively.

Then Devapriyan hit 19 off 16 balls including a couple of sixes and Suresh made 11. Supercats were all out for 143 with 5 more overs to go to complete their allotted 40 overs. There were 34 extras including 26 wides. For Vijay, Vasudev and Naran bowled well to capture 4 and 3 wickets respectively.

Vijay, facing a moderate asking rate of 3.6 runs per over, opened with Patrick Thomas and Krishna. When the total was 15 in the 4th over, Tim made the first blow by removing Patrick who was the highest scorer of the tournament for 3. Then Aravind made 12 before he was trapped in front of the wicket by Dipak and Kaushal made 12 before he was run out attempting a suicidal run. The total, at halfway mark, was 73 for 5. Needing another 72 in 20 overs, Naran and Piyush tried to push the total, but Arup Das, having the habit of breaking partnerships whenever he is given the ball, clean-bowled Naran for 8.  In the 24th over, Devapriyan cleaned up the tail by taking 3 wickets to give Supercats victory. The last 5 wickets for Vijay were lost within 6 runs.

The best batsman award went to Patrick Thomas of Vijay with his 111 runs. The best bowler’s award was won by Aravind of Vijay for his 8 wickets for 58 runs. Supercats took the winners' trophy while Vijay took that for the runners-up. The man-of-the-match award of the final, as adjudicated by match referee Steve Khambatta and umpires Senarath and Ayub, went to captain of Supercats, Sanjeev Kumar, for his 30 runs, 1 wicket for 13 runs and 2 good catches. On behalf of the sponsors, Mr Mohan gave away the trophies. In addition, he presented all the players with medals, while the umpires received trophies.