While Indian cricket fans start getting used to the frenetic pace of the ICC World Twenty20 cricket, corporates in Bangalore witnessed and participated in another form of cricket which is all about aggressive batting and fast scoring MAX cricket—an inter-corporate tournament conceptualised and organized by Roots Sports, a Bangalore based sport management firm.
Cricket Max is a form of cricket invented in New Zealand in 1996 by former New Zealand cricketer and captain Martin Crowe. It is essentially a very short form of one-day cricket and a predecessor to the Twenty20 cricket as we know it today.
Game rules
The rules of max cricket are a break from tradition and includes a lot of innovative rules like "free hit" after no-ball and revolving fielder. The field is marked with trapezoidal "Max" zones, one at each end of the field, any ball hit into the Max zone in front of the striker doubles the number of runs scored from that ball, whether by running between the wickets, or a boundary four or six. Hitting a 12 is no more a dream. Fielders also could not be in the Max zone as the ball is bowled. It was never more rewarding to play straight and play it safe. It also included the use of four stumps, at each end of the cricket pitch to help bowlers dismiss batsmen, as a batsman could not be dismissed leg before wicket.
Pradeep Gowda, partner, Roots Sports says "The response of the teams to the new rules was great to watch as they improvised to make best use of them." The tournament held over two weekends at the St Johns Medical College Sports Complex was fast and frenetic and full of mystery. There was no doubt as to the style of the event. It's all out aggression.
On the field it was TNT India who stole the show and marched on to become the deserved winners of the Gold Cup.
The final
In the decider match, TNT beat Wipro Technologies in a very closely contested match. Arun from TNT bowled a match-winning spell including a hat-trick which stopped big hitters Wipro from piling on a massive score. In a fitting end to the tournament, Madi Alagan of TNT hit a max shot for eight to seal the Gold cup. The third place final of the Gold Cup saw Tesco HSC beating MNE Technologies comfortably. Tesco team with its excellent fielding and bowling performance will be team to watch out in future tournaments.
The Silver cup finals saw Strides Arcolab take on MSFM Pvt. Ltd. MSFM team was in full flow as they beat Strides Arcolab in a keenly contested match. Santosh of MSFM took his team to victory with a well made 36. SGT Global took on Inatech Solutions Ltd. in the Silver Cup third place finals. Inatech won the match by 67 runs as they posted a huge score of 104 thanks largely to the efforts of Belliappa who scored 43. SGT Global never looked in the hunt as their innings folded in 5 overs.
The Bronze Cup saw Citi take on Himalaya Health in the finals. Kiran of Citi, took his team past 100 runs. Needing to score 126 runs Himalaya Health put up a brave fight but in the end, the all round performance from Citi helped them clinch the Bronze Cup.
The entire tournament saw some great all round cricket. Vikram of TESCO was adjudged the Best Batsman, while Arun of TNT was the best bowler. Sripathi of MSFM won the award for the Best All rounder.
DHNS
