The Triumph Knights Mumbai North East clinched glory yesterday night at the Wankhede Stadium by beating Shivaji Park Lions by a margin of only three runs in a nerve-wracking encounter. Captain Surya Kumar Yadav played the innings of his life to crown his team as the maiden Champion in the first-ever T20 Mumbai tournament.
Batting first, the Triumph Knights team disintegrated quicker than anyone’s expectations. Within first four overs, they were in a precarious position at 4/21. With the ball moving around viciously, the Lions bowlers made the most of helpful conditions and soon reduced the Knights to 48/5 at the half-way mark. Siddharth Raut finished his bowling quota with the figures of 4-2-11-2.
Refusing to bow down, the Captain Surya Kumar Yadav and the all-rounder Parikshit Valsangkar set about carrying out the restoration work. They slowly and steadily started piling the runs and ensuring a good defending total.
Well played @surya_14kumar !! A innings that makes a difference!! Anyways a great match to sums up the great tournament for Mumbai cricket. Congratulations #Knights @T20Mumbai @sachin_rt
— Observer (@ObserverSpeaksG) March 21, 2018
Shifting to the higher gear at the end overs, Surya started gobbling up everything that came his way. He came out with his brutal best and slammed the Lions bowlers to all directions and stands of the Wankhede Stadium. Scoring the as many as 60 runs from the final three overs, Yadav took the Knights to an imposing score of 182/5.
The recovery from 34/5 to 182/5 was unheard of. The Knights duo played magically under the immense pressure of the Final to build a safe total. Surya finished with 90*(42 balls, 7 fours, 7 sixes) while Valsangkar ended with 59*(49 balls, 5 fours, 2 sixes).
Chasing a huge total was quite common for the Shivaji Park Lions, they had chased 194 just the other night but this was the final. The opener Paul Valthaty not helping the cause perished early in the pursuit.
The backbone of the Lions, captain Bravish Shetty took the mantle of scoring and added some quick runs but he was back in the pavilion by the end of fourth over with 43 runs on the board. Alpesh Ramjani and Hardik Tamore controlled the chase from there on.
If u r #Yuvi fan watch #ShivamDube batting, #NextGenYuvi #CricketChaRaja @T20Mumbai @YUVSTRONG12 @LookAlike @CleanHitting
— Rajat Rajvanshi (@RajatRajvanshi) March 21, 2018
The middle overs were largely quiet hence when Shivam Dube arrived at the crease, the target for Shivaji Park Lions was 41 runs from 18 balls. This soon trimmed down to an almost-impossible 26 runs from the last over, mostly due to the strategic errors committed by the Lions in end overs.
Yadav gambled the last over by handing it to a part-time bowler, Shashank Singh. Dube longing for the glory went for an all-out attack. He smacked 6,4,6,0,6 to make it four needed from the last ball. Singh surprised Dube with a bouncer, the batsman failed to connect and the Lions lost by 3 runs.
The stunning final capped off the brilliant tournament hosted by the MCA. In such short span, the league managed to capture fan’s imagination and it goes off with the promise of returning next year even stronger.
