Sarfaraz, Kotian power domestic giants to their maiden T20 title
KOLKATA: Mumbai made heavy weather of a target before getting the better of Himachal Pradesh by three wickets and claiming their maiden Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy at the Eden Gardens here on Saturday.
However, full credit to Himachal too for taking it all the way down to the wire as the match was decided in the final over.
Incidentally, this was Himachal’s first defeat in this tournament after two of their league stage games were abandoned due to rain. The result could have been different had an HP player not grounded an easy chance off Sarfaraz Khan in the 18th over off Mayank Dagar.
Mumbai bowlers did well to restrict Himachal to 143 for eight after skipper Ajinkya Rahane won the toss and put the opposition in. Pacer Mohit Avasthi did the maximum damage claiming two wickets as Himachal were reduced to 58 for six by the 10th over. But a 60-run seventh wicket stand between Akash Vashist and Ekant Sen lifted the side. However, Mumbai came back into the match by picking up both the batters in consecutive overs.
Off-spinner Tanush Kotian, however, emerged as the unlikely hero. First he came good with the ball claiming three for 15 and then provided the winning touch by lifting HP skipper Rishi Dhawan over the fine leg for a six to bring home the victory.
Mumbai got off to a wobbly start, losing Prithvi Shaw, skipper Rahane and Yashasvi Jaiswal within the first 10 overs. But they looked like to have evaded the storm after Shreyas Iyer and Sarfaraz steadied the ship. But HP struck hard when Vaibhav Arora returned to pick Iyer and Shivam Dube in the same over.
Sarfaraz , who kept running out of partners, hit two fours and one six to collect 17 runs off the penultimate over bowled by medium pacer KD Singh, thus tilting the match in Mumbai’s favour.
Brief scores: Himachal Pradesh 143/8 in 20 ovs (N Gangta 22, A Vashisht 35, E Sen 37; M Avasthi 3-21, T Kotian 3-15). Mumbai 146/7 in 19.3 ovs (Y Jaiswal 27, S Iyer 34, S Khan 36; V Arora 3-27, R Dhawan 2-26, M Dagar 2-24). Mumbai won by 3 wkts.
