Skipper Sujit Nayak and Khizer Dafedar star in Bandra Heroes 7-wkt win in the opening game of the Mitsui Shoji T20 League

The Mitsui Shojit-20 League got off to a terrific starts with one of the strong favourites Mumbai Police Cityriders were given a jolt by the Bandra Heroes who defeated them by 7 wickets in the opening game in the double-leg of the Mitsui Shoji T-20 League, sponsored by Lal Bharwaney and held at Police Gymkhana ground, here today.

Put in to bat, Mumbai Police Cityriders, inspite of a fine knock of 53 by their Mumbai opene Jay Bista, the team could muster only 127 for eight in their allotted overs which is not the best of the scores to defend in a T20 game. Bista’s knock contained eight hits to the boundary but he lacked support from the other end. Chasing 128 to win, Bandra Heroes were given a pretty good start as their openers hit up 34 runs in the very first four overs before both the openers fell to the artistry of spinner Vinayak Bhoir.  They did lose another wicket but then the pair of skipper Sujit Nayak (33*off 25balls, 3×4, 1×6) and Khizar Dafedar (45* off 21balls, 5×4, 2×6) saw them through without any further hiccups. Ex India cricketer Wasim Jaffer is also a part of the Bandra Heroes team. Both the players khizar and Sujit stitched a match-winning partnership to steer their team towards the victory line.

Bandra Heroes won the match by 7wkts and 6.3overs to spare & Sujit and Khizar’s performance was surely the highlight of the match & especially Khizar dafedar who contributed well with his all-round performance.

Earlier in the morning as a part of the pre-opening ceremony, Sports Journalist of Mumbai (Media XI) played well to notch up 128 for 3 in 15 overs. Thanks to some aggressive batting by skipper Devendra Pandey (27) and left-hander Taus Rizvi (25), However, hosts Mitsui Shoji XI overhauled their score in 14 overs as Mukesh Gupta (71) and Sachin Upadhaya(34) took them home for the loss of just two wickets. Mukesh was particularly outstanding as he scored a unbeaten 71* off just 42 balls dominating the bowlers with authority.