In a thrilling finale held at an indoor cricket turf in Coimbatore, the Noble Knights narrowly defeated the Kovai Hitters by three runs to claim the KPL Trophy 2024. It was a match fought to the last ball of the eight-over game, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats.
Noble Knights, featuring many of Kovai.co’s star players—senior migration specialist Jeevanantham and lead sales development Gunasekhar, among others won the toss and chose to bat. However, their first batsman was out for a duck on the just the second ball, eliciting a loud “Ooohh” from the crowd.
Despite the initial setback, intern Ajay Ganesh and Gunasekhar formed a powerful partnership, propelling the Noble Knights to a formidable total of 88. Both batsmen hit three sixes each, leaving Nadeem just two balls to bat. The lead product marketer, Nadeem, refused to let go of the opportunity, adding a six and running for a two in the final two balls.
The Kovai Hitters started their chase with determination. Despite getting a first-ball wicket through a great catch, their fielders managed to restrict the number of fours and even twos, forcing Noble Knights’ batsmen to hit sixes to accelerate their scoring rate.
Kovai Hitters, undeterred by the challenging total, put up a strong fight.
Being an indoor stadium, sixes were slightly easier to come by rather than fours. Noble Knights’ fielding was also on point – said Senior Sales Development Representative, Jairam Nagaraj.
“So, it was an extremely challenging match for us.” The Kovai Hitters, with almost the same team, had reached the semi-finals of KPL 2023 but lost.
The first over was the Jackpot over, a new inclusion in the rules this year, where only the woman member of the team has to bat and be bowled to by the woman member of the opposition team. Swarnalatha from Kovai Hitters gave the defense an electric start by hitting a six and managing to score four singles in the very first over bowled by Sruthivika from Noble Knights. She ensured they hit the asking run rate of 10 runs an over with her innings.
Swarnalatha was followed by Venkatesh and Jairam, who took the field next. Despite both slamming sixes, they fell short of the score by just three runs on the last ball.
For those who thought only the finals would be interesting, the tournament surprised many with the close finishes seen in the semi-finals. Manchester City also reached the semi-finals only to lose to Kovai Hitters by just one run. Turf Titans, who remained unbeaten in the league stage, lost to Noble Knights in the other semi-final.
Having always loved cricket and playing for my school and college, it was fun to practice and play after so many years. We practiced for around two to three weeks at turfs near our office – said Senior Lead, Customer Success, Arulkumar Pavadai.
Arulkumar slammed more than three sixes for Turf Titans in the semi-finals. “The tournament, though friendly, was extremely competitive and challenging. We felt amazing playing,” he added.
Ten teams, with seven members each, participated in the second edition of Kovai.co’s annual cricket tournament. What began as an initiative to introduce corporate sporting tournaments and identify more players for our Kovai.co cricket team has now grown into one of the most anticipated employee engagement events of the year.
“We began receiving team registrations from the very first day. A few days before the tournament, we called all the team captains for a meeting, made them pick lots, and then drew up the schedule using the CricHeroes app,” said our People and Culture Specialist Jessintha Johnson. “We know that most people here are extremely passionate about cricket, so we reminded them that these are just friendly matches,” she added.
People got to witness some amazing team spirit, bonding between teams with players from different departments, some serious cricket, and have a whole lot of fun.
