Indian Railways Derail Mighty Mumbai’s Winning Streak To Stay Alive In SMAT

In a do or die game, the Indian Railways team defeated the star-studded Mumbai team to keep their hopes alive in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Campaign. On a tricky wicket, the Railways won a crucial toss and opted to bowl first.  With 8 out of 11 players of Mumbai playing in the IPL, Railways were the underdogs in this competition. 

Seamer Yuvraj Singh set the tone as he scalped 3 prize wickets of Prithvi Shaw, Ajinkya Rahane and Yashaswi Jaiswal. Captain Karn Sharma made crucial changes and challenged the batting order of Mumbai. With every move favoring the Railways, Mumbai found themselves at 52 for the loss of 8 wickets. Late heroics from Shivam Dubey and Tanush Kotian pushed the total to 107 as they were bowled out. The Railway’s bowling unit were unstoppable; Yuvraj Singh ended up with 4 wickets to his name in 4 overs giving away only 20 runs and 1 maiden. Pradeep also supported his fellow quickster as he joined the wickets tally with two wickets to his name with an economy of sub-six. The most important man on the field, Skipper Karn Sharma delivered when it mattered the most. Apart from cunning decision making, he purchased 3 wickets but kept the pressure on in the middle stages as the Mumbaikars could score only 10 runs off his 4 overs. 

It was over to the batsmen to chase a fairly easy target of 108. Opener Shivam Chaudhary (40 off 38) and 3 number batter Mohammad Saif (32 off 39) were cruising as they had passed 80 for the loss of 1 wicket. In the 13th over Chaudhary fell which created a domino effect and the Railways soon found themselves wanting. By claiming 6 wickets in the 18th over for 95, Mumbai had clawed their way back into the game. As the wickets tumbled, the pendulum swung heavily towards the Mumbai camp. Coming down the order, Captain Sharma hit two game sealing boundaries which won the game with 5 balls to spare. 

Coach Nikhil Doru, alongside with the team was quite pleased with the victory in their penultimate league game. 

“Winning against a team like Mumbai is definitely a boost for us. Fortunately, everything went according to plan and credit to the bowlers who executed it quite well. We have our final league game which is another do or die game for us against Vidarbha. We are looking forward to it and we will try to win it by a decent margin to qualify for the knockouts.”

Nikhil Doru
Indian Railways Senior Coach

On 23rd October, the Indian Railways will compete against Vidarbha for a spot in the knock out games. Riding on a winning momentum, the Railways look to attain a big margin victory to pass through safely. The game will telecast live on Hotstar.