After twelve days of frenzied double-header league matches and two semi-finals the second edition of the T20 Mumbai found its champion team in North Mumbai Panthers in the presence of a big turn out at the Wankhede Stadium.
Both the teams grappled with the task of finding a way out to get the better of the bowlers and put up an ordinary display with the bat.
Upon restricting the Panthers to 143, SoBo Supersonics would have fancied its chances of winning the coveted prize, but Panthers made sufficient inroads in the last five overs and defended a modest total with leg spinner Pravin Tambe, the oldest player in the league, taking the last two wickets.
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As it transpired, the Panthers tripped losing four wickets in the six-over power play leaving its captain Prithvi Shaw to repair the damage and bring semblance of a contest to the last match of the league.
Shaw did a commendable job of holding his fort for exactly hundred minutes and in doing so he became the first batsman in the league to carry the bat.
After electing to bat on a good batting track, Shaw saw his opening partner Vikant Auti depart in the third ball, trapped plumb in front by Rohan Raje.
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Auti’s exit marked a procession and after the third ball of the sixth over, Shaw, who had given the Panthers a flying start, hitting Raje for 19 runs in the third over, was forced to tone down, more so because of a troubling leg.
After scoring at a run rate of a little over six an over when the field restrictions were in place, the Panthers advanced to 79 for four at the half-way mark and eventually finished at a total that most teams would consider easy to chase.
Struggling to lift the run rate, Shaw threw his bat and from 44 onwards. was saved three times; one each by Deepak Shetty, Parag Khanapurkar and Japjeet Randhawa.
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