All Stars Team takes championship at 1st Chicago Open T20 Night Cricket Tournament 2021
There were countless iconic moments in Chicago area cricket history. One of the best cricket competitions, 1st Chicago Open T20 Night Cricket Tournament 2021 concluded in the Chicago suburbs on Saturday, Oct. 9, with hundreds of spectators gathered for the thrilling final game.
Many local organizations play cricket, but Chicago Open T20 Night Cricket Tournament is one of the best and most popular cricket tournaments in the Chicago area, organized by prominent community members Adeel Salam, Aijaz Baig, Sunny Khan, and Waseem Khan. Chicago Open T20 Night Cricket Tournament is graced with talented cricketers.
The games were held in line with government regulations and COVID safety guidelines. This year was particularly challenging, Aijaz Baig said, all the games went very well, "But all of our priorities were to ensure the city and state government restrictions (were) in place to keep the community and players safe from COVID-19."
In this 20/20 cricket 14 teams participated and each team was represented by local players and some out-of-state players. The tournament followed the International Cricket Council League standards.
The tournament ran from the first week of August 2021 through the second week of October 2021. There was a one-minute silence observed for those who lost their lives due to Covid-19.
The 14 best Chicago area teams involving top players played in this tournament, bringing multiple local communities together to cheer their favorite players and teams.
All-Stars Team registered a thrilling 21 runs win to confirm their trophy as Thunder Billas were lost out in the final game of the Chicago T20 tournament played under the lights at the Camera Park stadium in Glendale Heights, Illinois, on Saturday night.
Thunder Billas won the toss and took fielding first. The All Stars team put on a total of 142 runs. The Thunder Billas could not match the score though its batsmen played a long innings. They were all out for 121 runs in 18.4 overs.
On final game night, All Stars Team set a 142-run target, Batsman Ankush Agarwal awarded Final MVP for scoring 38 runs and taking 3 wickets allowing only 10 runs in 3.4 overs. Manu Singh, Hamad Qureshi and Ankush Agarwal were top scorers.
During an interview with Adeel Salam and Aijaz Baig they said, "Throughout the past several months, our organizing team worked hard to develop and implement robust COVID protocols to enable players to safely play in a Chicago area of this size and scale. The main goal is to organize this tournament in the best possible way and promote cricket to bring out the local talent.
The Chicago T-20 Tournament provided a great playing opportunity to youth cricketers, said Sunny Khan.
During the award ceremony, many awards were given to sponsor and supporters including runner-up trophy and $1,300 cash prize, winning trophy, and a $2500 cash prize money. Allstars team Captain Nishat received the winning trophy and check.
Sponsors for the T20 night tournament included American Cricket Conference, Barrington Crescent Cricket Club, Kotli Lions of Kashmir Premier League, Rising Stars Cricket Club, Whole Cell Accessories, Crescent Financial Services, MI Travel, Mudassir Siddiqui Real Estate Broker, Dr. Naqi Haider, Sunil Shah, and many others.