A day that saw the stars on screen play cricket! And that’s why we had to coin this word ‘Cricenema’ – the special fusion of Cricket and cinema! Entire Tollywood had risen for a special cause to contribute funds for the needy. The stars had got their cricket gear ready and battled for the trophy.
The day began with the assemblage of the actors of the four teams – ‘Balayya Lions’, ‘Chiru Cheetahs’, ‘Nag Kings’ and ‘Venky Warriors’ with the respective brand ambassadors. It was a friendly atmosphere at Lal Bahadur Stadium, with even the captains finding jokes every time they spoke.Legendary and veteran Tollywood hero Akkineni Nageshwara Rao kick started the games along with Movie Artists Association, President, Murali Mohan and T.Subbarami Reddy and couple of other eminent Tollywood personalities. Heroine Archana gave a dance performance and soon after that the match between ‘Balayya Lions’ vs. ‘Venky Warriors’.
The actors were all serious in their game and in now way did it look like a charity match. It was played professionally. While the toss was won by Venky, Balayya’s team was put to bat first. ‘Balayya Lions’ faced a tough bowling attack and had an awful start with the top order being dismissed cheaply. Only Junior NTR put on some runs on the board that made his team get a tally of more than 50 runs. In reply to the 59 runs scored by the Lions, the ‘Venky Warriors’ had a classic start. Opener Karthik scored an unbeaten 22 with two fours and along with Adarsh finished the match. Venky Warriors lost 3 wickets yet finished the game quite comfortably in 10 overs itself giving them an entry in to the finals. The man of the match was Adarsh for his contribution through both the bat and the ball.
The next decider was between ‘Chiru Cheetahs’ and ‘Nag Kings’. Handsome captain of the Kings, Nagarjuna won the toss and decided to bat first. The start itself was electric start for the Kings with the openers Taraka Ratna and Akhil Akkineni bashing the Cheetahs to the boundaries. Capitalising the effective opening stand, Kings with the help of cameos from Rajeev Kanakala and the captain Nagarjuna, the team made a massive 157 for the loss of six wickets. In reply to this, the Cheetahs faced a slow and poor start by losing early wickets. After a stable partnership between Sachin and Raghu, later in the end of the innings, Ajay came to play a blitzkrieg. He smashed 2 sixers and three fours yet the team was short of 12 runs with almost 10 balls to spare. Yet all eyes were on Akhil, who bagged four wickets in his four overs. The Kings moved to the final to face Venky Warriors. Earlier in the game, rain had played spoil sport and after it stopped the game resumed.
Before the finals was played, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Rosiah, received the funds that were raised during the match. He also felicitated National Award winning actors Prakash Raj and Priya Mani. The Chief Minister thanked the actors for coming together and made it a special occasion for a good cause. Similar opinions were opined by Dasari Narayana Rao, Murali Mohan and others.
Dance performances were given by heroines including Mumaith Khan. The star of the cultural night was Devi Sri Prasad who danced and sung his hits. The audiences were on their heels when Devi took charge of the mic. It was a gala cultural night and the stars loved to perform on the stage to entertain a huge crowd. Soon after the cultural programme, the next match was scheduled to start.
The finals commenced with Nagarjuna winning the toss again. This time he chose to chase and put Venky Warriors to bat first. As time was a constraint, the match consisted of only 10 overs. Hence in the given 10 overs, the ‘Warriors’ opened quite effectively with Adarsh hitting boundaries round the ground along with Raghu. They managed to hit 87 in the 10 overs for the loss of five wickets. Adarsh was unbeaten on 57. Chasing the innings, Akhil opened along with Taraka Ratna. The pair played well with Akhil batting exceptionally well. It was learnt that Akhil under went cricket training in Perth, Australia. Akhil hit five fours and two sixes. He thrashed all the bowlers and finished the game with 7 balls to spare. He completed his fifty quickly and made his team won the Tollywood Trophy. He was adjudged the Man of the Match as well as the Man of the Series.
All the heroines associated with the teams enjoyed a lot. Genelia, Anushka, Priya Mani, Kamna Jethmalani, Shraddha Das and others were cheering for their crowd. Not just them, just like the IPL matches, Cheer girls jumped every time a boundary or a wicket fell.On the whole, it was a fun filled event as the stars forgot their professional burden and enjoyed a game of cricket with their colleagues.
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