For the fifth straight year, the Vrindavana Preservation Society (VPS) conducted its annual Cricket tournament at the Joy Hanlon Cricket fields in Quincy Massachusetts. Spread across four weekends, the tournament featured sixteen participating teams. In the finals held on Saturday June 23rd, Team Waltham 11 defeated two time champions, UMass Lowell to claim the coveted championship trophy.

It was a fine day for Cricket with relatively milder temperatures and a gentle breeze from the backwaters of Quincy right beside the field. Both teams advanced into the finals undefeated in their previous matches. Earlier that day, both teams won their respective semifinals. Waltham 11 had a convincing win over Andover CC and Team UMass Lowell beat Stoughton to book itself a berth in the finals.

The match between Waltham 11 and Andover CC was a low scoring one. Thanks to excellent bowling spells from the Waltham bowlers, Andover was limited to a modest score of just 40 runs. Waltham 11 had few problems achieving the winning target of 41, helped by fine batting by KT Patel who remained unbeaten on 24. KT was declared the man of the match.

The match between UMass and Stoughton was also a low scoring one. Stoughton’s batsmen simply collapsed from the relentless bowling attack from the UMass bowlers, mainly Wahab who claimed 5 wickets. UMass has few problems reaching the target  of 50 with a few overs left to spare.

The final also proceeded to be a low scoring game. The pitch which has always been a bowler’s paradise rewarded the Waltham 11 bowlers for their fine efforts. UMass Lowell, the favorites were dismissed for a paltry sum of just 30 runs. While Team UMass did all it could with a spirited fight back, it could not stop Waltham 11 from making the 31 runs within the allotted 12 overs. Gaurang Patel of Waltham 11 was declared the man of the match. Nilesh Kumar of Andover CC was nominated as the man of the series.

The event received wide media coverage from NECN and from the Patriot Ledger. The event was graced by Mark Jaehnig, Director of the Quincy Parks department and his son Andrew.

This tournament was yet another grand success from VPS. As a volunteer and a spectator, I have seen this tournament get bigger and better each year. This is unquestionably from the passions of many volunteers from VPS. Rajiv Tarway, the VPS games committee chairman, untiring umpire Chetan Anand, Nikhil Wadhwa, Kumu Gupta and Gary Sottile deserve special mention for their services. India Delight Restaurant (Weymouth), Punjab Café(Quincy) , Sunshine Fruit (Quincy), South Shore India Market(Braintree) and Wendy Gibson, VP Investments of First MidAmerica were the generous sponsors of the event.

The tournament is just one of the many events planned by VPS for the coming year. For more information, please visit www.vps-international.org. A clip of the NECN coverage is featured at: http://www.boston.com/partners/worldnow/necn/landingpage.html?clipId=1552532&topVideoCatNo=80781

|