‘Roskill challengers’ hold nerves to beat spirited ‘Telugu Leaders’ in finals of first-ever Telugu Premier League in Auckland

The nail-biting finish in the finals of the first-ever Telugu Premier League in Auckland, held at Keith Hay Park on Sunday, April 18, lived up to the reputation of the much famous Indian Premier League on which this upcoming League for Telugu players had been modelled.

Lately, there has been a phenomenal surge within various sections of the Kiwi-Indian sport enthusiastic communities to launch cricket-leagues within their respective communities on the model of almost revered Indian Premier League with many such leagues already having started.

Notably, India’s Premier League is much-touted for bringing energy, passion, and showbiz in the game of cricket, in a manner never seen before in the history of the sport.

Drawing inspiration from that sporting extravaganza, the players in Auckland’s Telugu community have come together to organise a three-week-long Telugu Premier League that started over the Easter long weekend and ended last weekend.

The matches were played over the weekends, with seven teams in the fray playing in qualifying rounds and semi-final and finals being played on Sunday, April 18.

The finals were played between ‘Roskill challengers’ and ‘Telugu Leaders’ in heavily overcast conditions, which failed to deter the enthusiasm of the players and the supporters gathered to enjoy the game and cheer for their favourite teams in any manner.

Roskill Challengers had already an impressive run in the tournament riding on performances of some star players in their team, including former Black Cap Tarun Nethula and were largely considered as a favourite in the finals.

However, ‘Telugu Leaders’, unfazed by the star players, had other plans for the contest, making ‘Roskill Challengers’ labour hard for every run in a low scoring final and taking the match right till the last over – entertaining everyone with a riveting contest.

Batting first Telugu Leaders managed to put only 100 runs on the scoreboard from their allotted 20 overs but came back strongly with bowl and taking the game till the last over, only to be deterred by the inform batsman Tarun Nethula who stood resolutely for his team.

For the uninitiated, Tarun Nethula is a former Black Caps who made their debut for the New Zealand cricket team in 2012 in a One Day International against Zimbabwe and currently plays for Northern Knights in the Plunket Shield. He had a decent run in the Telugu Premier League with another scintillating knock-in semi-finals against Kiwi-Blues of 75 runs which helped his team post a challenging 153. Kiwi-Blues eventually could not chase the target and conceding the semi-finals.

The other semi-final was played between Telugu Hawks and Telugu Leaders, with the former having a reputation of being the more formidable opponent.

However, Telugu Leaders demonstrated enough grit to hold the Hawks back by regularly striking during the latter’s run chase of a reasonable target of 141 to earn their way to the finals.

Earlier, the league matches were played on Sundays, April 4 & 11, between the seven teams Telugu Leaders, Roskill Challengers, Link2Lions, Rising Stars, Kiwi Blues, Telugu Hawks, Friends team.

The tournament was organised by Abishek Reddy and Yaram Rami, who were also players in the Telugu Leaders team.

Expressing satisfaction on the completion of the Telugu Premier League, one of the organisers, Abhishek Reddy told the Indian Weekender that it was an immensely satisfying experience to bring all cricket lovers – players in our community, other communities and the supporters together.

“As organisers, our main aim & moto was to get all our community people involved in one way or the other and show that they all are there for each other, whether it is connecting us playing a sport or helping someone in need.”

“Although the main focus of the tournament was to bring together Telugu players from all over Auckland but to appreciate our deep connections with other communities, we have designed team structure in a manner that allowed eight Telugu players and three players from other communities.”

“We have tried to model Telugu Premier League as much as we can on the Indian Premier League within our given constraints.”

“We were able to get great support from our sponsors – Eco Travels, Spice n More Food Mart, Safe Scaffolding Ltd, Biryaniwala, Five Star Prints LOOK SMART, and members of the community, without which we could not have been able to pull off this tournament.”

The organisers also expressed their gratitude to Siva Killari of Universal Granite & Marbles Limited for sponsoring an additional $1000 to existing price money of $2500 at the time of the inauguration of the tournament.

The player of the series award went to Sai Arun Kasireddy.

Speaking to the Indian Weekender, Yaram Reddy, who also bagged the prize for most sixes in the tournament, said, “We would work hard in planning and executing such events in future and would Like to see our TPL grow and have strong roots for all upcoming generations.”