Bankers Bounce Back to Beat Lawyers in Charity Cricket Match
The bankers won the Duane Morris Capital Markets Cup with a resounding win over the lawyers in this year’s charity cricket match held on 19 January 2019 at the Sachivalaya Ground in Oval Maidan, Mumbai. The lawyers were aiming for four wins in a row, but the bankers bounced back to crush the lawyers in this year’s match, scoring 191 for 7 off their 20 overs and bowling the lawyers out for a paltry 85. The bankers have now won three times, but they still trail the lawyers, who have won five times.
Jamie Benson won the toss and sent the bankers into bat. The left- and right-handed batting combination of Bedabrata Das and Ronak Shah proved a challenge for the lawyers’ opening bowlers Sayantan Dutta and Siddhartha Desai, and the bankers got off to a quick start. Rabindra Jhunjhunwala and Vijay Parthasarathi were brought into the attack and Parthasarathi had Shah caught by the wicket keeper, Laban Das, for 9 runs. Satyam Singhal was next in, but unfortunately for him, he was run out by Jhunjhunwala after facing only one ball. This brought Javeed Siddiqui, the captain of the bankers, to the crease. Siddiqui and Das batted very well and the scoreboard ticked over at a fast rate until Siddiqui top-edged an attempted sweep from the bowling of Sanjay Israni and he was very well caught by Laban Das for 30 runs off only 18 balls. Amit Nayyar hit two sixes before falling LBW to Murtaza Zoomkawala for 21 runs off 10 balls. Bedabrata Das continued to bat well until retiring on 51 runs. The last few overs saw the bankers lose a few more wickets, but they ended up with an imposing 191 runs for 7 wickets off 20 overs.
Vijay Parthasarathi and Rabindra Jhunjhunwala got the lawyers off to a very good start, despite some good bowling from Harshit Talesara and Arjun Mehotra. The lawyers were on track with the required run rate after 5 overs but a change in the bowling brought a big change to the complexion of the match. Nayyar was brought on to bowl and Jhunjhunwala tried to hit him out of the ground, only to be caught at long off by Siddiqui for 11 runs. Parthasarathi continued to bat well but when he was out for 41 runs caught by Nayyar off the bowling of Shubham Mehta the match was as good as over. A combination of very good bowling from Nayyar, Gaurav Sood and Mehta, poor shot selection and good catching saw the lawyers crumble from 50 runs for no wicket to all out for 85 runs in 14 overs. Apart from Parthasarathi and Jhunjhunwala, no lawyer got into double figures.
The match was the initiative of Jamie Benson of Duane Morris. Benson is based in Singapore and is head of Duane Morris’ India practice and United States securities law practice.
Benson who captained the lawyers’ team commented, “Congratulations to the bankers. They played very well. It would have been nice to win, but the main thing was for everyone to have an enjoyable time and to raise money for a very good cause. I am already looking forward to next year’s match.”
This year marked the 10th anniversary of the match. The first match was held to raise money for the families of the staff of the Trident Hotel killed in the 2008 terrorist attacks. Jamie Benson was holed up in the Trident Hotel for 38 hours during the attacks and was lucky enough to walk out alive. Gratifyingly, so much money was raised from various sources that no more was needed to be raised for these families. Subsequent matches have benefited the Red Cross, Oxfam and Bal Asha Trust.
Bankers: 191 runs for 7 off 20 overs beat Lawyers: 85 runs for 10 off 14 overs.