Supersonics seal top spot with a thrilling win

SoBo Supersonics scored a thrilling win in the last T20 Mumbai League match, with Dhrumil Matkar hitting a last ball six against Shivaji Park Lions, on Sunday night.

With three runs needed off the last ball, Matkar hit Shivam Dubey over the long off fence to seal his side’s top spot in the league table. With the three-wicket win, Supersonics earned two shots at a place in the final.

Defending 150, Jay Bista made quickfire 34 at the top. Lions spinners, led by Tanush Kotian, bowled tight lines and lengths in the middle overs and never quite allowed the Supersonics batsmen to run away. Dubey took two wickets in two balls to make things even tougher for the Supersonics. With 46 runs required of the last three overs, Sujit Nayak (29) smacked Dubey for two sixes and a four, as the equation came down to gettable 25 required off two overs.

Lions got off to a terrible start at 30 for 3 inside the power-play. Bravish Shetty, batting at number three, continued his good form with a quick 32. Shetty’s 39-run stand for the fifth wicket with Shams Mulani steadied the things a bit for Lions. Mulani then added 46 runs off 38 balls with Dubey to give the Lions’ total some respectability. Mulani scored a run-a-ball 37, with the help of one four and a six. Dubey, at the other end, was more aggressive, remaining unbeaten on 37 off 26 balls. Dubey struck two fours and as many sixes. Badre Alam was the best bowler for Supersonics with figures of 2-26 from four overs. Harmeet Singh bowled an economical spell of left-arm spin, giving away just 22 runs from four overs.

Shreyas Iyed led NaMo Bandra Blasters knocked out North Mumbai Panthers earlier. Bowling first, Blasters reduced Panthers to 125 for 9 in 20 overs. It was a strong bowling performance from Blasters with Azhar Ansari, Pravin Tambe, Atul Singh and Karsh Kothari taking a couple of wickets each. Blasters’ openers Shreyas Iyer and Eknath Kerkar made short work of the target with top quality batting. Iyer scored his fourth half-century of the tournament, finishing unbeaten on 71.