Omkar Jadhav’s sublime 59 and Karan Nandey”s fiery 73 helps their respective teams reach the finals of the Mitsui Shoji t20 League
The 18th of May witnessed the all-important semi-finals between Mumbai Police vs Shivaji Park and Bandra Heroes vs Ghatkopar Jets at Police Gymkhana & Sachivalay Oval respectively. After fighting hard throughout the tournament, it was time for all the 4 teams to give their best where in Mumbai Police in the morning match won the toss & elected to field first while on the other side Bandra Heroes also elected to field first after winning the toss at afternoon.
Shivaji park Warriors gave their best though this pitch is famous for giving wins to the teams who bowl first. Shivaji boys notched up a very commendable 195/6 in 20 overs where in opener Eknath Kerkar smashed a 21 ball 44 followed by some wonderful batting by the middle order boys where in Sagar Mishra scored a 30ball 47(4sixes) while Raunaq Sharma finally being able to show his true ability in the crucial semi-finals scoring a 27ball 52(5 sixes) marking his presence. The bowlers could have done a better job by restricting them to around 170 but it was good batting overall. Chasing 196 in a T20 semi-finals is always full of pressure and most of the times teams blow out or choke but Mumbai Police boys nailed it as almost every batsman chipped in with 20’s while Omkar Jadhav scored a sublime 59 off 48 balls stabilizing the chase. Shrikant Limbole’s 8 ball 28 was also quite crucial in the end helping his team win by 4wkts with 1.2 overs to spare. Omkar Jadhav was declared man of the match while Mumbai Police qualify for the all important finals.
The 2nd match where Bandra elected to field first was also an interesting one. Ghatkopar jets who are surely the best underdogs against the powerful Bandra team who were favorites since the start of the tournament got a shocker as Ghatkopar won the match by 27runs. Ghatkopar Jets made 184/8 in 20 overs where in opener Karan Nandey scored a match-winning 73 off 52balls(8fours, 1 six) while Bandra Heroes in reply were all out for 158 in 19.2 overs. Aman Khan(38 off 18) &s Sujit Nayak (38 off 25) did gave starts but the rest of the batsman choked at a crucial juncture. Pushkraj Chavan with 3/23 was the pick of the bowlers followed by 3/39 by Puneet Tripathy.
Ghatkopar Jets & Mumbai Police Cityriders qualify for the finals & it is certainly going to be an intense finals of the successfully held Mitsui T20 Tournament on 20th of May starting at 6pm on Mumbai Police Gymkhana.
CRICKETGRAPH