Against All Odds: University of California Berkeley Men's Cricket Team Lifts NCCA Cup
The Californer/10234682

BAY AREA, Calif. - Californer -- UC Berkeley 113 for 1 (Shankara Srikantan 52*, AbhayPratap Grewal 31) beat University of Houston 108 for 9 wickets (Syed Hussein 31, Jayanth Kalakuntla 17, Aakash Sunderasan 3-14, Shankara Srikantan 2-19) By 9 Wickets To Lift The Division 2 NCCA Cricket Cup On March 25th 2023.

University of California Berkeley's cricket team was formed with an unofficial club status just a few years back with captain Rishi Arjun at the helm. Along with his deputies Gautam Anand and Jainil Ajmera, they amalgamated a team of players from a broad spectrum of talent to represent UC Berkeley. Players like Shankara Srikantan, Abhaypratap Grewal, Aakash Sundaresan, and Sourav Kumar were the frontline batters of the team and Prasann Guruprasad as the wicketkeeper. Jainil Ajmera, Vikash Makani, and Rishi Arjun spearheaded the bowling department as Dhakshin Shravan, Tanay Gokhale, Suraj Srivivasan, and Aditya Udgaonkar were genuine allrounders of this winning side.

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Not being a recognized club, all of the odds were stacked against this band of players as there was no official support from the University of California system. The seeds of this journey were sown a few years back as this team, on their own accord, would find economical ways to practice during weekends, pinching every penny from their own pockets to squeeze out a dollar efficiently. The team barely has three to four full kits that they share between the players, maximizing the utilization aspect of available resources. Since there is no official coach for the team, captain Rishi Arjun, along with deputy Gautam Anand, slide into this role seamlessly.

The grit with which they persevered through these challenges slowly started showing results. They went to the Los Angeles Regional Tournament in November 2022, barely losing the finals to UCLA due to Duck Worth Lewis rules in play.

Eyes were now on the big prize of winning the National Championship in Houston. The team put together a gofundme page during the regionals where they were able to collect just enough donations to pay for their participation fees and travel expenses to Houston to participate in the NCCA championship. Barring just one group stage loss, the team won all their league matches due to fantastic performances from both the bowlers and batters. They won against Rutgers University, Yale, Purdue and UCSD on their way to finals, with stellar performances from all players (Shankara 70*,Aakash 138, Jainil 2-4, Rishi 1-10, Sourav 2-6, Aditya 1-15).

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This team is onto a great start with limited resources, and with the help and support from the University of California system, can reach new heights. Congratulations to the team on their success through their hard work, dedication, and fantastic resource management!