CCA Falcons and Cricmax NJ are Champs of California Cricket Festival

Under-15 Championship CCA Falcon with coach Vijay Goel.

By Kerk Higgins
California Cricket Academy brought the curtains down on their inaugural Cricket Festival, after four days of exciting cricket, with CCA Falcons winning the U-15 age group and Cricmax NJ being crowned the U-12 champs.

In the U-15 championship game, Falcons convincingly defeated CAUSA Atlanta by eight wickets. These are the results of all the U-15 games played on the final day of the festival.

•  Championship Game: CAUSA Atlanta 111 (Amrut 21, Sohan 2/14) lost to CCA Falcons 112/2 (Abhishek 41*, Ruthvik 45)
• 3rd/4th place: CricMax NJ 247/5 (Vedant 80, Deep 57, Tejas 3/62) defeated BPL Chicago 193/8 (Simeon 78, Sidharth 4/24)
• 5th/6th place: Seattle NextGen 98/6 (Sathya 33, Raj 1/10) lost to South Cal 99/5 (Shardul 29, Arnav 2/8)
• 7th/8th place: TCA Dallas 157/9 (SP 36, Ajay 2/17) defeated Orange County 118 (Rohan 2/16)

In the U-12 finale, Cricmax NJ got the better of CCA Centurions by 49 runs. Here is a summary of games played in the U-12 age group on the final day.

• Championship Game: Cricmax NJ 141/5 (SaiTeja 38, Akshay 4/24) defeated CCA Centurions 93 (Rajat 26, Gunatilaka 3/19)
• 3rd/4th place:  CCA Sharks 225/4 (Rahul 107*, Kanish 59*, Devansh 3/27) defeated EYCA 121/7 (Anish 2/5)
• 5th/6th place: CAUSA Atlanta 244/2 (Rohan 137 Viraj 61) defeated Orange County 63(Ishaan 2/5)
• 7th/8th place: TCA Dallas 132/8 (Prasun 50, Arnav 2/4) defeated ACA St. Louis 132/8 (Taine 24, Soorya 3/24). ACA Forfeited.

After the four days of glorious cricket, it was very exciting to see two players in the U-12 age group who are patient enough to score centuries (Rohan Phadke 137, and Rahul Jariwala 107*), and eleven half-centuries (SaiTeja Mukkamalla; Rajat Sood; Kanish Bhalla (2); Harikrishnan Nair; Ved Patel; Prasun Kolhe (2); Keshav Balaji; Ishaan Roy and Viraj Vaghela.) The tournament also saw a five-wicket haul by Kanish Bhalla. With all these brilliant performances on the field, it was time to distribute some hardware to the outstanding performers. These are the top achievers in the U-12 age group:

• U-12 Champions: Cricmax NJ
• U-12 MVP – Sai Mukkamalla  (CricMax NJ)
• U-12 Best Batsman– Rohan Phadke (CAUSA Atlanta)
• U-12 Best Bowler– Kanish Bhalla (CCA Centurions)
• U-12 Best Fielder – Dhanush Kaveripakkam (CAUSA Atlanta)
• U-12 Best Wicket-keeper – Darsh Trivedi (EYCA)

In the older age group, there were three centurions (Ruthvik Chunduri; Atul Lyer and Deep Joshi), and thirteen half-centuries from (Abhishek Kattuparambi (2); Deep Joshi; Sohan Bhat (2); Simeon Britz (2); Amrut Pore; Sathya Venkatesan; Ishan Iyer; Vedant Parwal; Ahan Bhakre and Aman Patel.) We also had one five-wicket haul by Amaan Khan. The U-15 awards went to the following players:

• U-15 Champions: CCA Falcons
• U-15 MVP – Ruthvik Chunduri (CCA Falcons)
• U-15 Best Batsman – Abhishek Kattuparambil (CCA Falcons)
• U-15 Best Bowler– Siddarth Intareddy
• U-15 Best Fielder – Sahil Kancherala (Seattle NextGen)
• U-15 Best Wicket-keeper – Mihir Cherukupalli

During the past four days, we had the pleasure of seeing the future of US cricket, and I must say it looks very bright. All this would not have been possible without the California Cricket Academy. The academy has done an outstanding job of hosting such a festival. I do hope that this is just the beginning of an annual California Cricket Festival.