Pranav Birje| Senior Correspondent
Angkrish Raghuvanshi’s heroics in the Powerplay and Vinayak Bhoir’s all-round show helped SoBo Mumbai Falcons register a hat-trick of victories in T20 Mumbai’s third edition with a four-wicket win against Triumph Knights Mumbai North East on Friday.
Making their maiden appearance at the Wankhede Stadium and icon player Shreyas Iyer taking over the reins for the first time, the SoBo Mumbai Falcons chased down a target of 146 with four balls to spare.
It was a high-profile clash between Shreyas and Suryakumar Yadav leading the two teams. While both the stalwart batters were dismissed early, it was the maidan ‘crisis man’ Bhoir, who rose to the occasion.
When Bhoir – the left-hander who had played his part with the ball with three economical overs – took to the crease, captain Shreyas had been dismissed, lbw off a flipper by leggie Parikshit Valsangkar. That dismissal pegged the Falcons back despite Raghuvanshi (42 off 25) tonking 22 runs in the last over of the Powerplay.
Even before Bhoir took guard, Harsh Aghav also got out and at 75 for five in the 11th over, the onus was on the allrounder duo of Bhoir and Parkar to take the game deep. The seasoned campaigners did so to perfection. Despite the pitch offering turn to spinners, the duo batted sensibly, focusing more on rotating strike rather than taking
any undue risk.
With 30 required off 18 balls, Bhoir chased a wide delivery outside off stump by pacer Hrishikesh Gore and tonked him over long-off for a huge six. The next ball was cramped into his body, but he whipped it to the short boundary at square leg. While he perished later on in the same over trying to finish the proceedings off in a hurry, the damage
had been done.
With five runs required off five balls, Parkar opened up his shoulders for the first time and finished the game off with a six over long-on.
Just like Thursday, though, the win was set by the Falcons’ bowlers. Siddharth Raut started with a maiden and even though the in-form pacer had to head back to the dressing room after injuring himself, the rest of the well-oiled bowling pack never let the seasoned campaigners like Suryakumar and Siddhant Addhatrao cut loose. Had it not been for Suryansh Shedge’s pyrotechnics in the end, the Falcons would have restricted the Knights to a sub-130 total.
In the end, even a target of 146 proved to be a cakewalk for the Falcons!
Player of the Match: Vinayak Bhoir
Brief scores
Triumph Knights Mumbai North East 145/5 (Siddhant Addhatrao 57, Suryansh Shedge 49; Siddharth Raut 1/8, Yash Dicholkar 1/21, Vinayak Bhoir 1/21) lost to SoBo Mumbai Falcons 147/6 in 19.2 overs (Angkrish Raghuvanshi 42, Vinayak Bhoir 33, Akash Parkar 30; Hitesh Kadam 2/22)