NRW Indoor Championship 2016

Yesterday was a great day in the history of NRW. NRWCU has organized the indoor championship 2016 (See the day in pictures right by clicking here). That was by far the best indoor tournament in the history of Germany. All clubs played matches with their professional colored outfits, which is a new tradition in Germany. The event started at 08:00 am and after having more than 20 matches ended at 10:30 pm. It was a non stop cricket for more than 12 hours. The competition was tough, the environment was exciting and organization was brilliant. In both groups the semi finalists were decided in the very last match of the group stage. All teams won matches and stayed in the tournament right till the end. It was nail biting situation for all the clubs where the difference between the top team and last team was not more than 2 to 3 points. The bonus points system made things very interesting and in the end played major role in the qualification for semi finals. Moers CC and PSV Aachen were involved in their very first event with NRWCU and both qualified for the semi finals. In fact PSV Aachen also played the final. It was also the first indoor event for Uni Dortmund and they also had a great day by defeating the Mülheim Seniors in group stage.

The event started with the first match between defending champion Duisburg CC and Mülheim Seniors. Mülheim Seniors won by a big margin, which was a major set back for the defending champions. In 2nd match Fiends XI and Mülheim Juniors had a tense finish. Mülheim Juniors scored 67 runs and were favorite to win match. But Friends XI came back in 2nd innings and were in great position to win the match in last over in which they needed only 5 runs to win. Shahbaz bowled a great last over and the match was tied. Duisburg CC came back in the tournament by winning couple of matches but were unable to qualify for semi final. Dortmund CC also won couple of matches and at one stage were favorite to finish their group at top. In Group B Fiends XI again repeated their great performance of last year by defeating Bochum CC yet again, and again with a six on last ball. PSV Aachen won two of their matches by scoring more than 70 runs and bowling out their opposition, hence securing two bonus points in both wins. Moers CC and Friends XI were the most exciting teams. Both had very inexperience teams, but they gave their 100% and won two matches each. Both were favorite to qualify for semi finals but because of complex bonus points system Friends XI were unable to qualify, although they lost only one match. Only Mülheim Seniors, Mülheim Juniors and Friends XI lost only one match in group stages, all other at lost at least 2.

The final four teams for semi final were decided by very last match in Group A between Mülheim CC and Dortmund CC, and in Group B between Mülheim Juniors and PSV Aachen. Before these matches in Group A Moers CC was leading with 11 points by defeating Uni Dortmund in their last match. Both Dortmund CC and Mülheim Seniors had 10 points each. In Group B things were even more interesting and complex. Although Firends XI lost only won match, won two and tied one, but they were unable to get more important bonus points and had 11 points after their last match. Bochum CC also had 11 points but they gave away a crucial bonus point in their last match against PSV Aachen which in the end helped PSV Aachen to qualify for semi final and not Bochum CC. PSV Aachen were at 12 points and were favorite to win their last match against Mülheim Juniors who were standing at 7 points and needed to win their last match against strong PSV Aachen with bonus point. Mülheim Seniors scored 48 runs in their last match against Dortmund CC. No team was able to defend less than 60 runs till now and with strong batting line up of Dortmund CC it was almost certain that Dortmund CC will win the match, end with at top of Group A and hosts Mülheim CC are out. But Mülheim CC stunned everyone with their bowling yet again on that day and won by 12 runs to end with 14 points and at top of Group A. Dortmund CC disqualified yet again like last year which was a set back for them. In other match Mülheim Juniors were also able to defeat PSV Aachen with bonus points and ended at the top of Group B. Both teams of hosts Mülheim CC ended at the top of their groups each, which was a remarkable achievement. And just like last year, they both qualified for semi final. But this time they didn’t play Semi Final against each other like last time.

The Semi Finals were played between Mülheim Seniors and PSV Aachen, and Moers CC and Mülheim Juniors. Mülheim Juniors won their Semi Final quite easily and Moers CC were unable to repeat their earlier majestic performance. In other Semi Final the real competition was between the strong bowling of Mülheim Seniors and equally strong batting of PSV Aachen. Jaffar Nawaz, the captain of Mülheim Seniors, was yet again outstanding in the semi final but was not able to stop PSV Aachen and PSV Aachen scored 73 runs. It was almost an impossible task for Mülheim Seniors considering their very weak batting line up. But unexpectedly they made it very tough for PSV Aachen and lost match by only 4 runs. The final was between the two of best teams of the event; Mülheim Juniors and PSV Aachen. Surprisingly PSV Aachen bowled out Mülheim Juniors for just 43 runs, despite the great performance by Humza Rafiq who made 20 and was good with bat just like in all previous matches. It required a miracle to stop the string batting line up of PSV Aachen and Mülheim Juniors did it. They won the match by 6 runs and unlike last year, they didn’t mess up their final over in the final match. So Mülheim Juniors are the new NRW Indoor Champion and PSV Aachen are the runners up. Humza Rafiq from Mülheim Juniors was declare the man of the match in the Final for his 20 runs and best batsman of the event for making most runs in the event. Ahmed from PSV Aachen was declared the best bowler of the event for his consistent bowling performance throughout the day.

NRWCU/DCU worked very hard to give the cricketing community in NRW a great day and they were successful in doing this with the help of Mülheim CC, especially Nasir Virk. The facilities were great, the environment was exciting and management was good. Never ever before that we had cash prizes in an indoor event, never ever before that we had an international player as a chief guest, never before that we had an indoor tournament with such great colored outfits. The food was provided to each and everyone throughout the day, along with drinks and tea. The management of NRWCU/DCU thank all participants and for their positive feedback after the event. We will continue to provide you great cricket in the future too.