Air India lifts the Sahara City Homes Sheesh Mahal Cricket Trophy

June 5, 2010 - PRLog -- Lucknow, June 5, 2010: The final match of the ‘57th Sahara City Homes Sheesh Mahal Cricket Tournament’ was played today between Air India and Sahara India at K.D. Singh Babu Stadium where Air India won the match by a margin of 54 runs. The tournament which started on 31st May 2010 and served as a feast to the sports lovers of the city was concluded with huge fanfare and glitterati. Harbhajan Singh was the Chief Guest for the final match that captivated the attention of the people of the city.
The start of the match was delayed due to showers in the morning. The match started at 1:00 p.m.  and the number of overs per side, were reduced to 12 from 20. Ajeet Chandela of Air India scored quick 44 runs in just 19 balls. He also took 3 wickets for 16 runs in 3 overs and was awarded ‘Man of the Match’ for his stupendous performance. The ‘Man of the Tournament’ Award went to Abhishek Jhunjhunwala of Sahara India, for his outstanding batting throughout the tournament. Earlier, Sahara India had defeated India Oil by a huge margin of 91 runs and Air India won their match against ITC by 4 wickets to make their way into the final of ‘57th Sahara City Homes Sheesh Mahal Cricket Tournament’.
Speaking on the occasion, Shri Abhijit Sarkar, Head – Corporate Communications, Sahara India Pariwar said, “We are happy to see that the 57th Sahara City Homes Sheesh Mahal Cricket Tournament which was played in T20 format, for the first time, has been well appreciated and accepted by the Lucknowites. This gives us more confidence to contribute more towards the development of the tournament. We take this tournament with a pledge to ourselves that we will eventually make it one of the most sought after tournaments of the country.”
Adopted by Sahara in the year 2006, ‘Sahara City Homes Sheesh Mahal Cricket Tournament’ is played on a league cum knock out basis. This year, there were 8 teams which were divided into 2 pools with 4 teams in each pool. The teams of Indian Oil, ONGC, Maharashtra Cricket Association and ITC are placed in Pool A while Pool B includes the teams of Air India, Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association, India Post and Sahara India.  The matches were played at K.D. Singh Babu Stadium and Chowk Stadium with 2 matches on each ground on 31st May, 1st June and 2nd June 2010. The semi-finals were played on 4th of June 2010.
The tournament which is one of the oldest and the most acclaimed national cricket events has seen many cricket legends playing for the Cup. Sahara has plans to develop the event as one of the major cricket tournaments of the sub-continent in the coming years. This will help the development of the game at ground level and will provide the international exposure to the local players from different parts of the nation.
Match Summary:
The final match (Air India vs. Sahara India) was played today at K.D. Singh Babu Stadium where Air India defeated Sahara India by a margin of 54 runs. The start of the match was delayed due to rain in the morning and for the same, the match was reduced to 12 overs per side. After winning the toss, Air India decided to bat first and scored 113 runs for the loss of 4 wickets in 12 overs. Ajeet Chandela of Air India who scored a quick 44 runs of 19 balls and took 3 wickets in 3 overs, giving away 16 runs, was awarded ‘Man of the Match’ for his all-round performance. Batting second, Sahara India scored 59 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in 12 overs.

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Sahara India Pariwar is a multi-business conglomerate with diversified business interests that include financial services, housing finance, mutual funds, life insurance, city development, real estate activities, print and television media, film production, information technology, health care, tourism, hospitality and consumer products.
The sponsor of Indian Cricket and Hockey, Sahara India Pariwar, had earlier, adopted Indian Boxing, Wrestling and Archery and very recently, Indian Shooting in addition to covering support of a total of 56 sportsmen in these four games until after London Olympics 2012.