Mumbai played host to what would go down as one of the most fiercely fought battles of Tata Crucible. The fantastic Sunday fanfare started with a prelim followed by a quiz for the Tata track.
With four teams from TCS qualify to the final with one team each from Tata Communications and Tata Capital many would have thought TCS would win on sheer majority. However, a young Tata Capital team represented by Govind Grewal and Preeti Shankar came within striking distance of upsetting three time Mumbai champions Suresh Kumar and Aniruddha Dutta ( from TCS). However, it was experience that prevailed in the end as team TCS stamped their class and authority on the final to make it to the national final yet again.
This riveting final set the stage for another blockbuster in the external track of the quiz.
The finalists in the non Tata Track were:
The external track of the quiz for non Tata companies was an absolute cracker with three of the six teams on stage being former national champions (Sun Microsystems are the 2008 champs, Deutsche the 2007 and Questa the 2006 champs) of the quiz and one team (IMRB) the Mumbai regional champion a year ago.
This fascinating lineup truly made things a lot more complicated as each right answer was worth its weight in gold. With hardly any team making major headway through the quiz, it seemed like a marathon where the final stretch decides the winner. The battle went right down the wire to the final question of the quiz with three teams ending in a tie breaker for the top slot.
The tiebreaker saw Sun Microsystems win the quiz and on the next question HUL moved past Deutsche Bank to win the runner up prize. Perhaps, quizmaster Pickbrain was fair in his tribute when he said ‘This seems like a national final, weeks before we actually reach there”.
Results ( Tata Track )
Runner Up: Tata Capital – Govind Grewal and Preeti Shankar
Results ( Non Tata Track )