AISSMS Cricket Team broke the jinx – emerged Runners-up in MIT Summit 2016

MIT Summit is an annual National Level Inter-Engineering Sports Meet organised by MAEER’s Maharashtra Institute of Technology, Pune. In its 11th year, the Meet saw participation from 70 engineering colleges from different parts of India with over 3000 students competing across 15 sports disciplines. Around 60 teams participated in the Cricket Championship at MIT Summit this year. Team AISSMS broke the jinx to reach finals after a gap of two years and emerged as Runners-up this year.

Team AISSMS was not able to make it to the finals of MIT Summit in 2014 and 2015. So when the schedule was announced for 2016, the Team knew they have to leave no stone unturned this year for the championship. The preparations for the tournament began with around 50 candidates in June – three months before the Championship. They focussed only on building fitness levels and physical strength in the first month. A disciplined and rigorous physical training schedule including yoga and gym exercises was followed under the able guidance of their Physical Director Mrs. Manisha Kondhare. A team of 20 probables was selected at the end of June based on their performance.

The practice in the nets started in July which also helped the team members to gel and bond with each other. At the end of every practice session, the team, led by their captain Pratik Patole, used to analyse their areas of strengths and weaknesses. Ex-AISSMS players also shared their experiences with the team and guided them in raising their game. The team was ready to give their best for the Championship.

MIT Summit Cricket championship is conducted in a knock-out format. Team AISSMS started with a bang by winning against KJ Somaiya in their first round. They defeated Sinhgad Narhe, BVP Karad and VIIT colleges in rounds 2,3 and quarter-finals respectively to reach the semis. They were pitted against host team MITCoE in the semis. Batting first, team AISSMS had set a target of 92 runs in 20 overs. MITCoE quickly reached to 36 for no wicket in 6 overs in their chase. Those were the nervous moments for team AISSMS but they did not give up. Captain Pratik led from the front and kept on motivating everybody. They came back strongly into the game and won it by 3 runs.

The final was against Team AIT who were runners-up last year. It was a nail-biting contest that went to the last ball. Batting first, Team AIT set a target of 109 runs. Team AISSMS worked steadily on chasing the target but some quick fall of wickets and fine display of bowling by team AIT led to a scenario where team AISSMS had to score 11 runs off the last over to win the game. In first 5 balls, team AISSMS scored 9 runs and it all came down to the last ball – 2 to win and 1 to tie the game. However, as fate would have it, their batsman was caught behind the wicket and team AISSMS lost the final by 1 run. They had to settle with the runners-up trophy.

Reaching the finals after a gap of two years in itself gave a big boost to team AISSMS. Their hardwork and dedication helped them break the jinx and bring back glory for their institution. They know the expectations from them will be much higher now for the upcoming tournaments. Team AISSMS is also prepared and ready to compete!