Tata Sports Club snatched a tense two-run victory against Future Group in a cliff-hanger final of the 10th RCF T20 Cricket Tournament 2019 for the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Cup at the Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers Colony ground, Chembur.
After captain Akshay Darekar decided to field first the Future Group bowlers got regular wickets as Tata’s collapsed to 47 for 8 wickets in 11 overs. But a face-saving effort from number nine batsman Vishal Dabholkar who scored a 34-ball unbeaten 27 runs studded with three boundaries helped Tata’s to score 94 before getting all out in 19.1 overs. Dabholkar and Siddharth Raut (15 runs) put together a 33-run ninth wicket partnership to provide some respectability to their innings.
Sagar Mule (4/5), Aatish Gawand (2/28) and Javed Khan (2/22) did the damage with the ball.
Defending a low total, the Tata SC spinners Brijesh Gharat (3/16), Aditya Dhumal (3/19) and Chirag Khurana (2/6) rose to the challenge and tormented the Future Group batsmen and bundled them out for a paltry 92 runs in 19.4 overs to emerge champions. Raunaq Sharma (27 runs) and Shashikant Kadam (16 runs) were the only batsmen to get into double figures for Future Group as rest of the batsmen cut a sorry figure.
Gharat was later named as ‘Man of the match’ and he also won the Best Bowler award. Shashikant Kadam (Future Group) was declared as the Player of the tournament.
Tata SC received the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Cup and winners’ prize from Sudhir D. Panadare, Director (Technical) RCF, and Rajesh Sutar, former Mumbai selector.
