Kochhar, having won the toss, made the unexpected choice to chase under lights in a ‘final’ match, where the pressure was always bound to tell as the match got closer. Perhaps the decision was inspired by the presence of master blaster Sultan, but it could not have been and was not (in my opinion) the right way to go. Amarchand, having been gifted the opportunity to make first use of a slow end of season wicket, opened with the in-form Prashant and the talented Vaibhav.

Kochhar began well with the speedy Bharat Veer and the accurate Vijay Ravi repeatedly beating the bats of both openers outside off-stump, but somehow failing to get that all important edge.

Prashant and Vaibhav, having survived three torturous opening overs against the new ball, finally began to find their feet, the middle of their bats and to reap the benefits of sticking it out. Prashant, compact and graceful, repeatedly found the gaps on the off side with lovely dabs, picture perfect cover drives, cuts and leg side flicks to tick off boundaries, while Vaibhav (43 of 38 balls with 7 fours), more expressive, thundered a few through the infield to take Amarchand off to a good start.

Kochhar earned its first breakthrough as a result of Vaibhav’s rush of blood, which saw him charge down the wicket to Anuj Bedi, missing the agricultural swing completely and being duly stumped. An opening stand of 70 in 10 overs finally broken, Amarchand began a frighteningly ‘India in the 90’s’ type of collapse, with no batsman finding it within himself to partner Prashant, who single handedly kept the score board racing along and Amarchand on track for a fighting total. Amazingly, no other AMSS batsman passed 5 and together the remaining seven that got a chance to bat contributed an absolutely mind bogglingly miniscule 11!

There were two moments that stood out during the AMSS batting. The first, the moment of the match came courtesy the outstanding efforts of the wicket keeper for Kocchar, who prior to and after this moment was (to use a Shastri-esque cliche) nothing less than ‘safe as a house’. At this moment though, he was fluid, speedy, graceful and aware, as he quickly moved way down the leg side to cleanly collect a massive wide and to whip off the bails before either he had finished moving down the leg side, or Avnish, the hapless batsman, had completed his overbalanced attempt at a leg glance.

The second game changing moment had the effect of ensuring that what looked like a modest total of around 140 suddenly became a challenging one of 176. Prashant, who had continued to wage a lone hand, once again thwacked the ball to mid-wicket, where (a) it was stopped before the boundary if you are from Kochhar; or (b) was stopped after it had crossed the boundary if you are from AMSS; or (c) could not possibly have been correctly called one way or the other without an array of cameras if you were a spectator.

Even as the umpire signaled a front foot no ball, Prashant and Varun, the batsmen at the time, for reasons best known to themselves (presumably, thinking it was a boundary), decided to cease running and have a conversation mid pitch, even as the bails at the non-strikers end were whipped off. Varun, grasping the situation a lot faster than the opposition, quickly started to walk off, even though it was Prashant that should have been the one given out.

A sacrifice to beat all sacrifices, as in addition to saving the all important wicket of Prashant, the strong words that were exchanged thereafter between Prashant and some of the Kochhar team, had the effect of galvanizing Prashant into an even higher gear. An angry Prashant, consummate professional that he is, was able to focus his anger on the Kochhar bowlers and immediately after this incident commenced launching his missiles to all corners of the ground, en route to completing a spectacular century in just 58 balls and ensuring that AMSS finished at a stiff 175. The extras column contributed an invaluable 20 to the Amarchand cause!

Kochhar began the chase with a couple of nice shots of Gaurav Dayal in the opening over before it all started going horribly wrong in the 2^nd over of the innings. Kochhar lost both their opening batsmen to two poor balls from Majid, the first caught in the infield and the second by Gaurav at deep mid wicket. With the score reading a disheartening 11/2 in 2 overs, the stage was set for Sultan to once again rescue Kochhar from the depths of despair, much like he had done in the semi-finals.

Playing to the highest of expectations, Sultan began sedately, playing out a series of dot balls to get his eye in and making just 2 of the first 8 balls that he played. Bobby Khan, playing a mature innings from the other end, kept the run rate in check, making up for any dot balls that either he or Sultan played with some crisp hits to the fence and some smart running.

Then, Sultan exploded into life and began to do what he has earned a fearsome reputation for doing consistently – taking the opposition bowling apart. Sultan first sent out a warning, stepping down to loft Gaurav for six overs, long off before really jangling the nerves of AMSS with a fabulous lofted square drive that travelled nearly 70 meters. Leading a charmed life, first being put down by Gaurav of his own bowling and then being absolutely gifted a life by Jai, who dropped one of the easiest catches to have gone down at this level, Sultan (at the time of the drops, batting at 1!) blazed his way to 50 of just 23 balls. Combining extremely well with Bobby, the two put on 70 in merely 7.3 overs to bring the chase back on track and to set AMSS hearts aflutter.

With the pacers making no impact, AMSS played their trump card in Varun Bajaj, the outstanding left arm spinner in the Tournament. Even though Varun conceded 9 of his first over as he sought to settle down into a rhythm, the change in pace paid rich dividends in Varun’s next over as he first had Sultan caught in the infield of an ugly and unnecessary slog sweep played to a delectably tossed up delivery, before going through the defenses of Dhruv off a faster ball, to reduce Kochhar to 81/4 in 10 overs.

With the best of Kochhar back in the hut and 96 still required in the remaining 10 overs, the burden of the chase shifted on to the admittedly broad shoulders of Bobby, who was trying to play the same sort of innings for Kochhar as Prashant had for AMSS. Though Bobby tried hard and finished not out on 70 of 51 balls, clouting 3 sixes and 7 fours in the process, a match-winning bowling performance from Varun (4-1-20-3) and a good finishing bowling performance from Ashish (3-0-20-0) ensured that Kochhar was not going to get too close for comfort.

Amarchand, generally brilliant on the day (fielding apart), ended up deserving winners and new champions of the Tournament. The victory must be all the sweeter for these ‘Titans’, who have always played with a team drawn solely from within the firm and have consistently shown that even ‘professionals’ from outside are beatable!

In a clear nod to the controversy over external players SILF chairman Lalit Bhasin, in a press release sent out by Amarchand, was quoted as saying: “Team Amarchand Mangaldas truly deserved to win the SILF Tournament as apart from being the best cricket team in the tournament they were a genuine team consisting of professional lawyers and staff members associated with their Firm. Amarchand Mangaldas by winning this tournament has helped us retain the true spirit of the tournament.”

The views expressed in this article are those of the author only and Legally India takes no responsibility for anything written in this article or any views expressed herein. The author of this article was formerly with Luthra & Luthra Law Offices, Delhi and any bias apparent in these articles may be attributed to this former association.

Photo by TC7