BPL 2017 Season 1

So 2017 season 1 comes to an end. An end which saw joyful celebrations and some heartbroken faces, but what an end it was. Teams had played the entire season with great heart and attitude. And it's time to put some time into reflecting into what a season it was. Some games were played right from ball one till the last bowl and even into the superover. While some had ended early by some awesome performances. Time to reflect on those special moments which made the season such a good one.

Firstly, let's congratulate the Scranton Stars team lead by captain Dhaval and vice captain Smit, I personally don't think it must have been easy driving 5 hours for every other weekend or every weekend as the playoffs came and then playing two games, but they somehow managed all that pretty well and help the league grow towards what it could be in future. They showed heart and spirit for the game from ball one. There are many instances of their team showing the spirit, but to keep it short I will like to highlight one instance which was really nice handled by them, they were bowling at time and a boatsman's catch went to the slip and the slip caught the ball, but neither of the umpires had a clear sight of the ball was taken cleanly or not, but they came and withdrew the appeal to make the game move forward and fairly to both the teams, and just like this there were many instances when they showed spirit, and at the end, they came out to be the BPL Champions of 2017 season 1.

Now is the time for one of the best teams in the league for second year coming, the Challengers. They have managed to play both the finals so far, but the luck is just not helping them as they narrowly missed the championship the second time around. They have been the team to beat all season long, with their record of 12 wins and only 2 loses they exemplify what a winning team looks like. They played the final game this season and had only scored 53 in 16 overs allotted, but they are determined to win the game, so they started and started really well kept the opponents down till the very last and ensured that Scranton didn't get an easy win at all. Their performances again and again highlight the qualify of their players. They managed to score 125+ in 15 overs twice in 14 games and probably had the best balanced side. They also had the honour to field the best player of the series, Dharmeshbhai, who managed to score 170 runs and take 36 wickets and win numerous man of the match's. Well played Challengers. While another individual who managed an awesome feat was Dharmen Patel who managed to take 8 wickets in a game.

When the season had started there was one team which was considered truly the underdog of the tournament, the Bhand Warriors, but by the time the tournament came to the end, it was seen what a dark horse team they were. They did not only defy many odds, but they at times pulled the win right of the opponents hands. They had some really nice performances against the best teams in the leagues, lead by Captain Dipal himself. One of which was against Scranton Stars, in game game which was possibly for scranton to take away, after they had gotten all the Bhand down and out, but Bhand won it off the last of the innings with just one wicket remaining, which shows their will which was unreal and helped them win many contest from down under. Thanks Bhand Warriors for challenging all teams right down to the wire.

Raging Tigers, don't have much to say about them, as they managed to barely make a comeback, they at the start of the season faced an early elimination with 2 wins in 6 games, but the later half saw them do something unreal and manage to make the playoffs, with some back to back wins against the three top teams in the league. They managed to give the toughest of the challenge to Scranton Stars, and make the two contest quite unforgivable. In the first game against the Stars, Tigers batting second were chasing along nicely but at the end somehow they managed to lose with needed just 1 off 7 with still 2 wickets in tank. They played the super over for that game, but Scranton came out on top. Second games against Scranton and they chose the best occasion to bring their best game. They this time we're defending a target of 2 in last 6 balls with Stars having 2 wickets left and they managed to win. So it goes to show what a competitive side they were lead by Captain Sneh who won the fielders award taking 18 catches and 4 runouts, taking 11 wickets, and scoring 175 runs becoming the second highest run scorer of the tournament. While quite a few other players who showed up on games when they needed the best performances to win.

Teams who didn't qualify for playoffs: Roarers, Fighters, Gladiators and Philly XI. Even though these teams didn't qualify they also had some players have rose to the occasions time and again. One of the few came from Roarers, the highest run scorer of the tournament Shyam Pandya, he managed to score a staggering 198 runs in total. While another players who managed one of the great performances from these teams in a losing cause of Gladiators very own Tushar Rao, he managed to get 5 wicket haul in game when the opponents had only lost 5 wickets, such an awesome feat by a single person in this tournament. Fighters had their own captain Amit Rathod, who managed bowl some of the best spells for his team.

Best performances of the season: 
Top 5 run scorers:
Shyam Pandya (198)
Sneh Patel (175)
Hiren Patel (175)
Dharmesh Patel (170)
Jisit Patel (164)
Top 5 wicket takers:
Dharmesh Patel (36)
Harit Patel (29)
Hiren Patel (27)
Bijal Patel (25)
Dharmen Patel (25)
Top 5 players ranking points:
Dharmesh Patel (2154)
Hiren Patel (1749)
Harit Patel (1683)
Bijal Patel (1679)
Sneh Patel (1456)
Top 5 fielders statistics: 
Sneh Patel (18c 4ro)
Jisit Patel (14c 3ro 1st)
Kashyap Patel (13c 1ro)
Bhavin Patel (12c 1ro)
Chaitanya Patel (10c 2st)

There were many other performances and moments which were awesome to watch in live, but unfortunately we will only have those in memories now. Great memories for season 2017-1. Let's wait for the next now!

Message from CEO:
I would like to thank all the teams for playing the game with the right spirits and making this one excellent for everyone. There were many individuals who made the tournament possible and I would like to thank all of them as well. Great turnout for BPL, let's make it a better thing now.