MCA Colts achieve guts and glory win In Talyarkhan final

Mumbai, April 22:  About three quarters of an hour to Tuesday midnight, MCA Colts‘   Shashank Attarde hit the skipper and left-arm spinner Shams Mulani for a six of the last ball of the final  to bring a remarkable two-wicket victory for his side to win the R.F.S.Talyarkhan Memorial Inviational T-20 tournament at Bombay Gymkhana’s floodlit ground.

Chasing a stiff target of 174, the Colts outfit showed its allround depth to achieve a win that seemed unlikely at rhe halfway mark, when they had lost half the side for 90 runs. In the circumstances, Colts,  led initially by Sidharth Akre  and Atharva Ankolekar kept hopes alive in their dug out with a recovery stand of 39 for the sixth wicket.

Thereafter the pendulam swung towards the Kennedy Seaface based side when seamer Sylvester D’Souza got rid off Akre and effected the run out of Saksham Jha. But Ankolekarand Attarde kept themselves busy with a bold and brave 32 run stand for the eighth wicket that brougt the Colts within striking distance of the target and the title. The colts needed 30 in the last three and they accomplished a splendid  feat when the chips were down..

After the innings break the Gymkhana fast bowler Zaid Patankar struck in the
fourth ball of his first over – the fifth of the powerplay – by removing former India opener and the Colts captain Prithvi Shaw  who made a 13-ball 15 with three boundary.(4s) shots. Patankar was relentless as he proceeded to get rid of Suved Parkar in his next over.

The  Colts scored 51 at the conclusion of the powerplay, a shade better than their opponent,. but lost three wickets, including that of a game-changer in Shaw. The Colts chase began with a first-ball dismissal of Divyansh Saxena to D’Souza.

Earlier the Gymkhana side scored at a little over eight runs an over at the half-way mark (82/3) after a modest 49 for 2 in the first 6-over powerplay and sustained the scoring rate of eight plus an over to finish its innings at 173 for seven wickets.

Mulani, who took guard at the fall of the fourth wicket, held fort with a 22-ball 38 with one 4  and three 6s. He and Sagar Chhabria (26 off 15 balls) added 51 runs for the sixth wicket.

The Gymkhana side lost opener Kevin Almeida in The in the last ball of the third over and  Ishan  Mulchandani in the third ball of the sixth. Mulchandani was quick off the block making a 17-ball 31 with three hits to the fence and two over it.

IThe middle- order batters, Vikrant Auti.and Sachin Yadav made good contributions making 26 and 21 before Mulani and Chhabria forged the highest partnership of their innings. In all the Gymkhana side hit ten 4s and nine 6s.

The scores: Parsee Gymkhana 174 for 7 in 20 overs (Shams Mulani 38, Ishan Mulchandani 31, Vikrant Auti 26, Sagar Chhabra 26, Sohan Sabnis 2 for 26) lost to MCA Colts 179 for 8 in 20 overs (Sidharth Akre 35, Atharva Ankolekar 31, Jai Jain 26, Shashank Attarde 25 not out, Sylvester D’Souza 2 for 39, Zaid Patankar 2 for 20, Aayush Vartak 2 for 39).