CARAVANS Cricket Club has officially launched this year's edition of the outfit's highly anticipated tournament, Petrofuel TCA Caravans T20 Cup, with an exciting inaugural function and captains meet held in Dar es Salaam last weekend.

 The tournament is considered the biggest in the country, bringing together the top 10 teams to find out the best among the rest.

Caravans Cricket Club has been conducting the side's Anniversary tournament since 2009, and this edition is the 16th showdown in succession.

Last weekend's event was well attended by the sponsors, franchises, and captains of all participating teams who were introduced to cricket stakeholders and had the opportunity to discuss the tournament's rules and regulations.

The 2024 TCA Caravans T20 Cup promises to be an action-packed event, featuring a T20 format per ICC guidelines and culminating in the grand finale.

The winner of the 10-team showdown will take home the coveted TCA Caravans T20 Cup trophy, which was on full display at the venue.

The inaugural function also saw the unveiling of the tournament trophy which was designed to reflect the spirit and competitiveness of the event, by the title sponsor.

Nine franchises out of 10 contenders for this year's tournament were also unveiled at the function.

They are Alliance Caravans, Aurobindo AKSC, Delaware Upanga SC, Balakrishna Foundation Aces, Flashnet Strikers, Park Mobile Lions, Harab Motors Pak Stars, Econo Lodge Lions, and Azania Bank Pak Stars.

The winner of the 2024 TCA Dar Division B League's final matchup, slated for this weekend, would be the 10th team completing the 2024 TCA Caravans T20 Cup contenders list.

The tournament’s holders, Delaware Upanga SC, faced Flashnet Strikers in the opening match of the competition which took place at Leaders Club venue on Saturday.

Delaware Upanga SC won the toss and elected to bat first- scoring 133 runs in 19.2 overs and losing all wickets in the process.

Maker Mukesh was the standout performer for the batting outfit, scoring 36 runs off 20 balls. Darpan Jobanputra was the pick of the Flashnet Strikers bowlers having taken four wickets and only giving away 12 runs in his four-over quota.

In return, Flashnet Strikers could not chase the target falling short by 47 runs, being knocked over for 86 runs in 17.5 overs.

Captain Jatin Darji was the only bright spark for the batting outfit given the performer scored 37 runs off 30 balls.

As for the bowling side, every bowler managed to secure at least one scalp each which was sufficient to restrict the batters.  

For scoring 13 runs and taking two crucial wickets, Asuri Rajendra was adjudged the Ras Logistics Man of the Match.

The Medinova Moment of the Match was handed over to Darpan Jobanputra who led his team’s bowling prowess with his four wickets.

With this win, confidence will be on the side of the holders who are slated to lock horns with Balakrishna Foundation Aces on Sunday, in what is widely viewed as the clash of the weekend.

The tournament is an annual T20 cricket competition organized by Caravans Cricket Club.

Petrofuel is the title sponsor of this tournament. Other sponsors for the showdown include Alliance Insurance, Ras Logistics, Medinova Healthcare, Automark, Pepsi, Ashton Media, MFI-Vertiv, Jiuzhou, SmarDTV, Intek-Korea, ASAS, Colourflex, Delaware, Aurobindo, Balakrishna Foundation, Park Mobile, Harab Motors, Flashnet, Generics, Econo Lodge, Azania Bank, Horizon Teleports, TATA, The Works, MO Bajaj, and Seacliff Hotel.