Mumbai North East Triumph Knights wins the Mumbai T20 Premier League ‘18
Image courtesy-mca.com
The high profile MPL T20, the younger sibling of the state level IPL organized by MCA was a huge success with matches being aired on Sony Six. The players from local and state level got adequate exposure and coverage and the talent got recognized. Many players even became overnight stars while many alarmed the IPL houses with their perfomance.
Since the time it began IPL Star Suryakumar Yadav’s team was a clear favorite as it had the right amount of hitters as well as solid batsman along with tight bowlers. Mumbai North East team’s batting line up itself was upto no.7 where Surya would come down the order. There were many players who shone bright in the tournament, local level players like Alpesh Ramjani became an overnight star with his unbeaten 34ball 64* in the semi-finals taking Shivaji Park Lions to the finals. Destructive all-rounder Shivam Dubey showcased his all-round skills with consistent hitting throughout the tournament, in one match he even took a 5wkt haul along with a quick fifty. Indian Team’s rising face Shreyas Iyer was the top scorer in the tournament while Ajinkya Rahane also played in a few matches of this tournament. Then there was this big hitting left handed all-rounder Sujit Nayak scoring MPL’s highest score falling just one run short before the innings ended and he remained not out on 99*. Spin-master Pravin Tambe bowled one of the most terrific spells in a T20 game giving away mere 8runs in 4overs while scalping 3wkts shutting down all the critics while Mumbai’s most promising speedster Badree Alam also impressed one and with his express bowling wherein one match he even took a 5wkt haul.
Mumbai North East Triumph Knights captain Suryakumar Yadav who is this time playing with Mumbai Indians had a patchy start to the tournament where he has not amongst the runs. But as we say, big players deliver on big occasions and he came back to form single handedly helping his team win the semis as well as the finals. In the semi finals, he scored a 35ball 63 coming at no.5 taking his team to a respectable total of 162/6 which they eventually successfully defended while in the finals when they were made to bat first at Wankhede, Mumbai North East were struggling on 16/4 and 34/5 but Suryakumar who came at no.7 smashed a 42ball 90*down the order with 7big sixes in it while also stitched a 84ball 148runs unbeaten stand with Parikshit Valsankar who also played well smashing 49ball 59*.
The finals was a close match where the match remained interesting till the end. Despite a poor start by the openers of Shivaji Park Lions- Bravish shetty, Hardik tamore, Shivam dubey and Alpesh Ramjani chipped in with quick 30’s which took the game to the last over where Shivaji Park Lions fell just 3runs short in the penultimate ball.
The tournament was certainly entertaining with many positives coming out from it while Surya and his team lifted the covered MPL T20’18 title.
TEAM SPORTSNASHA
Haineel Shah
