Team Sayaji wins Poona Hoteliers’ Association Premier League 2021 for third consecutive year

The PHA (Poona Hoteliers Association) President, Sharan Shetty teamed-up with the Chairman of Organising Committee, Amit Sharma along with other Executive Committee members decided to go ahead with the popular cricket event, the PHA Premier League.

The event was organised to uphold the solidarity of the PHA community, who had to face challenging times during the pandemic. The event generated overwhelming response seeing active participation from 20 teams. The tournament was played adhering to all the Covid-19 safety protocols in league cum knockout format spanning 3 days (March 1, 2021 – March 3, 2021).

The first two days saw some pulsating cricketing action, wherein teams tried to secure a quarterfinal berth. The event saw teams winning matches by a narrow margin of 2 runs, huge margin of 100 runs, a bowler picking up an over hattrick, an opening partnership of 158 runs and many more exciting moments.

In the quarterfinal, The Ritz Carlton won their match against Fort Jadhavgadh by a comfortable margin of 23 runs. In the 2nd quarterfinal AISSMS team fell short of the target by just 5 runs against defending champion, Sayaji. The 3rd quarterfinal was won by Blue Diamond against Conrad by a margin on 11 runs. The pick of the quarterfinals was played between Corinthians & JW Marriot which resulted in a tie. The match was won in a Super over by JW Marriott.

The 1st Semifinal was played between The Ritz Carlton and Sayaji wherein Sayaji – Imran put up an all-round performance to see his team through to the finals. In the 2nd Semifinal Taj Blue Diamond team posted a huge total of 111 runs for opposition JW Marriott, who fell short of the target by 25 runs.

In the final match between Blue Diamond and Sayaji, Sayaji bowlers backed their Captain’s fielding decision by restricting the opposition to a modest total of 49 runs. The defending champions Sayaji trampled the target in just 4.4 overs with Captain Madhav leading from the front scoring a quickfire 28 runs. The final man of the match was bagged by Sayaji – Sandesh who setup his team’s win by picking 4 wickets. Team Sayaji created history by lifting the PHAPL championship for 3 consecutive years.

The entire tournament was played with great camaraderie and team spirit. The teams played great competitive cricket on field but above all celebrated the joy of togetherness.

The wonderful initiative by PHA Ex-Comm has strengthened the bond between the PHA community and transformed them into a closely knit family woven by the uniting fabric of cricket.