STCJ Airoli - New Kings of the Navi Mumbai Deanery

A famous quote by an expert football coach says "You win your trophies and medals at practice, you just collect them on the day of the tournament" and the boys team of St. Theresa of the Child Jesus Church, Airoli proved this to be absolutely right. The tournament was announced in February and the only dream our entire team had was to win the Winners Trophy at all costs; what followed was religious and dedicated practice sessions at the turf with over 20 regular players competing to be a part of our 2 teams. With approximately 2 months of practice (minimum twice every week for 8 weeks) it was time to form 2 teams and to execute all our game plans to perfection. The STCJ Warriors Team led by Darryl Pinto also consisted of Clinton Dsouza, Dareen Monteiro, Demin Monteiro, Godwin Sarote, Joseph Dcosta, Mouvin Pinto, Nishith MJ, Patrick Barrow, Rickson Goves, Rostein Cardoza and Royston Lobo. The STCJ Challengers Team led by Johnson Gaikwad also consisted of Ajit Fernandes, Alistair Nadar, Aryan Colaso, Austin Fernando, Darren Mascarenhas, Jeston Dsouza, Romson Dsouza, Ronald Menezes, Ryan Colaso, Savaryson Nadar and Selwyn Santmajor. It was finally the day of the tournament - 27th April and the venue was Mauli Turf, Sector 8A, Airoli (our home turf) and as fate would have it, the STCJ Challengers played the opening match against team DKP Dominators from Kharghar and the Challengers ended up dominating the Dominators by scoring 62/2 in 4 overs and only conceding 41 runs in the 2nd innings despite losing the toss. The STCJ Challengers played team SFX Panvel next and it turned out to be a very one sided affair and the Challengers scored 77 runs without losing a single wicket & the bowlers and fielders did their job by making sure that team SFX was all out for just 21 runs. The STCJ Warriors did not have luck on their side as they ended up losing to the DKP Warriors and to Good Shepherd United, Sanpada on the last ball & they both went on to qualify from the group stages. The STCJ Challengers were directly into the semi finals along with Sacred Heart Church Vashi since they both won their respective groups. Our next opponents were team SJC Dynamos from Belapur who showed their A game throughout the tournament. The home team though were ready for every A game and they ended up winning the semi final with ease by scoring 70/3 in 4 overs and making sure that team SJC Dynamos were all out for only 33 runs while chasing. It was now time for the grand finale and our opponents were St. Francis Xavier Church Panvel - a team who was on a mission to win their first ever trophy and also to take revenge for their B team who lost to us. Team Panvel were outstanding throughout the tournament and they won the toss in the finals and chose to bat; which meant that this would be our first chase in the entire tournament. Some of their top order batsmen had destroyed bowlers from every team and they had the same plans against team Airoli too as they scored 33 runs in just 2 overs, however, our diamonds did not succumb under pressure and made a comeback to restrict the opponents to 42/7 in 4 overs; which meant we needed to chase 43 in 4 overs to be the champions of the Navi Mumbai Deanery. Our batsmen knew the situation and had enough experience to handle the pressure of the finals too & it took us 3.3 overs to comfortably score 47 runs and win our first ever NMD Cricket Champions Cup Winners Trophy. The feeling of happiness, joy and relief was seen on the faces of the players and supporters who waited for this moment for 3 years. As they say - good things take time; this one certainly felt worth it. This trophy and the title of being the Champions belonged to both our teams, all the players who were a part of the team, all the players who came for practice and for all our parishioners. The night ended with a short and sweet felicitation ceremony where the winning teams received their trophy and medals & the individual winners - Mr. Steve Fernandes from SFX Panvel (Top Run Scorer) and Mr. Savaryson Nadar from STCJ Airoli (Highest Wicket Taker) collected their trophies too. All STCJ players and supporters left the turf with the feeling of being a champion again and the celebrations will continue for a while. One thing we can guarantee - We will give our all to win more trophies for our Church in every single tournament.