Like last year HSV-Cricket has again started 2009 season with a bang.

Yes sir, we have successfully defended our title and the first NDCV tournament of this season, "The NDCV Indoor Cricket Championship 2009". By winning it this year HSV-Cricket has also completed the hat-trick of this event.

Now the team is preparing to defend it's other titles which include NDCV Twenty20 and NDCV One day championship. We'll talk about these ones later and first let's go through the story of this particular success.

The tournament was played on 14th and 15th of March, 2009. Almost all of North German teams participated in it. After preliminary rounds, HSV-Cricket and Pak-Alemi qualified directly for the semifinals by winning both of their group matches while being 2nd in the groups,  Rot Gelb and HamburgYouth teams had to win a few more matches to reach the semifinals.
 

Click here or at the picture to watch all of them. (Rest of the report continues below this picture)

Both of the Semifinal teams were announced by the Empires by using draw method. HSV-Cricket was pitted against Hamburg Youth while Rot Gelb got Pak Alemi as their opponent.
First Semifinal got through very quickly when Hamburg Youth team didn't show up and umpires declared HSV-Cricket as the winners. On the other hand the 2nd Semifinal was a real nail biter which went to the last over and last wicket. Pak Alemi scored 94 all out in 10 overs which Rot Gelb achieved in the last over.

Anyways then came the grand finale and we did what we do best "WON IT" :-))

From HSV-Cricket side the vice captain Fahad and Shams who was in extravagant form through out the tournament opened the innings and they set a very high tempo from the word go. In fist 2 overs they were already on 35 for no wickets. Then Fahad was given LBW but that was even a bad sign for Rot Gelb as the captain Barkat took the crease :-)
After wards its a story of full blooded shots and very cheeky singles (3 runs). Barkat and Shams took the score to 139 in 9 overs when Shams got run out. Then in the last over Ali and Barkat scored some more and eventually gave a target of 159 to win in 10 overs.

The story doesn't stop here. Rot Gelb also came running and reached 33 in first 2 overs when HSV-Cricket players thought that's a little too much. In a beautiful piece of fielding Shams got one of the dangerous openers run out but still they kept on scoring at the run rate of 15. Barkat bowled another one in between but runs kept on coming at a very fast pace.
The defending champions knew that it's a matter of time and patience as 158 was really a big total. Shakeel also bowled a couple of beautiful overs in between and eventually after 8 overs Rot Gelb was 117 for 4. Now HSV-Cricket needed just one wicket while Rot Gelb needed another 41 runs.
Fahad got the ball and all HSV-Cricket side was a little anxious as in his first over he had leaked 19 runs. But this time he bowled a Butt sahib like delivery which means a real loopy off break which never reached the batsman who waited and waited and waited and when the ball reached him he tried to hit it so hard that he mistimed it completely and the ball just ballooned to cover where Ali took a smart curling catch.

This brought a joy and cheers from the team mates who were sitting in the stands as well as the playing ones. The hall echoed with known joyus words of HSV HSV HSV.......

The runner up trophy was gatherd by Rot Gelb captain while HSV-Cricket captain Barkatulah received the winners trophy. Shams was declared the player of the tournament.

This report is presented by non other than Muhammd Bilal ... cheers :-))