Khaitan & Co took home the winning trophy at the ELP Masters Cup 2012 last weekend, as 16 law firm teams battled it out on the grounds of the Police Gymkhana in Mumbai. Two-time defending champions Wadia Ghandy failed to make the cut.
Khaitan & Co won Sunday’s (22 January) final against DSK Legal, comfortably chasing with four balls to spare.
Khaitan partner Rabindra Jhunjhunwala had lost the toss and DSK decided to bat first. However, Khaitan restricted DSK to 78 balls through tight fielding and good bowling, Jhunjhnuwala told Legally India.
Khaitan senior associate Subhayu Sen won the ‘man of the match’ award.
In the earlier semi-finals Khaitan had set the largest score of the tournament by making 109 runs, beating Phoenix Legal by 61 runs. Khaitan & Co associate Ashraya Rao was awarded ‘man of the match’ and also bagged the ‘best bowler of the tournament’ award.
DSK Legal in its semi-final match had narrowly beaten tournament hosts Economic Laws Practice (ELP) after tieing after the normal six overs of six balls each, as customary in the semi-finals and finals. A final six-ball ‘super over’ was then played in which DSK ultimately prevailed. Only two wickets were used in the super over to make it harder for the bowlers, and the batting side was forced to bat with fewer players.
Last year, Nishith Desai Associates (NDA) had defeated ELP in the semi-finals with a coin-toss tie-breaker after extended and repeated ties between the teams, leading to calls for tie-breaker reform.
Rohan Shah of ELP was crowned ‘man of the series’ rewarding for his outstanding batting.
Law firms who went head to head for the cricket tournament at the Police Gymkhana included ELP, Advani & Co, Talwar Thakore & Associates, Udwadia & Udeshi, Nishith Desai & Associates, AZB & Partners, Khaitan & Co, Bharucha & Partners, DSK Legal, Kanga & Co, Juris Corp, Desai & Diwanji, Wadia Ghandy, ALMT Legal, Phoenix Legal and Crawford Bayley.
Update 22:05: An anonymous insider sent us the following behind-the-scenes narrative to clarify our “lopsided reporting” in this story. Here it is for readers’ benefit, though be warned, the tipster professed to have “vested interests”:
ELP thrashed everyone in their group and came through to the semis. They lost the semis match after being in a position where they needed 2 runs of 3 balls.
WG [Wadia Ghandy] failed to make the cut because they were beaten by debutants Phoenix Legal. Phoenix smashed 74 in 5 overs (their captain Arun hit an unbeaten 38) and WG managed to make only 50-odd in reply. This is big news because the defending champs were beaten by unknown first timers.
Comments
In any case, it seems everyone who was at the tournament will know the background and other details (unfortunately better than us in this case).
But will update the story when we get the other facts.
Happy cricketing,
Kian
And to add it was not WG but NDA who defeated ELP on the basis of coin toss last year.
Please get your facts right before publishing such articles.
Have clarified the language.
Sorry about the WG/NDA mix-up - you are correct, last year NDA/ELP were in the coin toss.
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KCO played quite well. Their openers had a 50 run stand in every match with 109 runs in 6 overs in the final. They also were disciplined in their bowling with not too many wides.
DSK played well throughout the tournament and put up 78 in the finals, which is a great score but were however, humbled by KCO.
Phoenix was the surprise of the tournament and deserve a pat on the back for giving their best.
and totally agree with Jackson -those two in rhythm is a delight to watch. Also a lot of my friends from in-house legal teams kept complaining that they din get to play.. icici for one!
But great going KCO!