The weekend witnessed an exciting see-saw battle not only between the 10 teams but also between the elements and the organizers as torrential rain threatened the 20th edition of the Tata Motors Jakarta International 6s cricket tournament played at the Cibubur Cricket Ground.

Ten teams, including three foreign teams from Singapore and Malaysia, faced off in cricket’s most entertaining format, the 6s.

Despite heavy overnight rains, the tournament kicked off on schedule on Saturday morning thanks to the efforts of the grounds coordinators. Consistency of performance was key to making it to the top and the best teams demonstrated that in good measure.

The introduction of the Double Mileage over brought in not only new excitement, but also the need for some astute captaincy.

The young Indonesian team of the Yadavas Chairos Tigers surprised and delighted everyone by their wonderful all-round performance losing only one game, which was also a rain-shortened one.

The stars for them were Ahmad Ramdoni, the second-best batsman of the tournament, Agi Saptiazi, one of the most economical bowlers of the tournament, Muhaddis — who shone with his classical leg-spin — and their talismanic captain I Kadek Gamantika with his all-round performance.

They were looking well placed to fight for a spot in the finals, but rain and the need to leave for Malaysia for their national team tour, put paid to those ambitions.

In pool A, both the Singapore teams, with a bevy of former and current Singapore national team players, looked unbeatable. Anuj Behl, the tournament’s most economical bowler (just 9 runs of 4 overs) was the Singapore Recreation Club’s best bowler and played a huge part in their dominant display — the only unbeaten team in the tournament — and run to becoming the joint winners.

The current trophy holders, the Selular Lions, on the other hand, had many stars.

Vijay Babu, the Overall MVP of the tournament, and Surendar Chandramohan, the Best Batsman, along with the classical Rakshan Rai, starred in their performance, but losses in two key games hurt their performance and prevented them from making it to the finals.

The ANTV powered WPP India XI team, was brilliant in its consistency, which depended on a solid team performance, in which everyone chipped in at crucial moments.

His ability to take wickets earned Gaurav Pathak the Best Bowler of the tournament, while Rahul Pagad bludgeoned his way to the award for highest number of 6s in the tournament.

Their skipper Pallav Malhotra and opener Arun Ranjain were the other stars of a complete team effort.

In a tournament in which spinners, especially leg-spinners, performed well, Corbon Loughnan also shone, albeit in a losing cause to be the second best bowler.

The tournament saw a huge, 83 sixes being hit and 8 maiden overs being bowled. The introduction of the innovative double mileage over saw 1 over going for 54 runs, a rare occurrence in cricket.

The tournament also witnessed three bowl-outs as rain impacted a few games.

The Singapore Recreation Club (SRC) and the Selular Lions topped pool A, while WPP India XI and the Yadavas Chairos Tigers topped pool B.

SRC romped through to the finals to face WPP India XI after the Selular Lions had been knocked out and the Tigers had to leave for national duty in Malaysia in the double eliminator.

Heavy rain, however, played spoil-sport and since no further play was possible, SRC and WPP India XI were declared joint tournament winners. Ceylon CC and Jaguar CC were jointly awarded the Plate trophy.

“In spite of all the heavy rains around, we were delighted to get so many games — testament to the hard work put in by the JCA committee members and the spirit shown by the teams,” said Jakarta Cricket Association (JCA) president Avakash Lohia.

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