CRICKET | Sutar and Awais fire Maratha Royals to T20 Mumbai league glory

MSC Maratha Royals defeat SoBo Mumbai Falcons in T20 Mumbai league final with Chinmay Sutar and Awais Khan shining.

For the second consecutive week, a team led by Shreyas Iyer ended up losing a major T20 final. On Thursday at the Wankhede Stadium, MSC Maratha Royals did a Royal Challengers Bengaluru on Shreyas’ SoBo Mumbai Falcons to lift the T20 Mumbai league’s coveted trophy.

Riding on impact player Chinmay Sutar’s perfect anchor role (53, 49b, 2x4, 2x6) and youngster Awais Khan’s cameo (38, 24b, 3x4, 2x6), the Royals overhauled the Falcons’ total of 157 for four with five wickets and four balls to spare.

When Awais joined Sutar — dropped by wicketkeeper Angkrish Raghuvanshi off offie Harsh Aghav on 15 in the eighth over — in the middle, the Royals required 75 runs off nine overs. While Sutar continued to rotate strike, Awais swept the spinners to perfection, clearing the boundary at will with his calculated risks.

When medium fast bowler Akash Parkar was introduced in the 16th over, he used the pace well to clear short fine-leg for a four. Both fell to Kartik Mishra in the penultimate over — Awais stumped off the third ball after successive fours off the first two balls, courtesy misfields at long-off and long-on, and Sutar miscuing a heave off the last ball.

But veteran allrounder Rohan Raje finished the game with two smart strokes off Parkar in the last over.

Earlier in the night, Siddhesh Lad won the toss and inserted the Falcons into bat. The Royals stifled the Falcons after the batting unit cantered to 60 for three in 10 overs. The onus was then on captain Shreyas to cut loose.

But Shreyas missed an attempted reverse-sweep off spinner Vaibhav Mali and at 72 for four, Aghav (45 n.o., 28b, 1x4, 4x6) took guard with Mayuresh Tandel (50 n.o., 32b, 3x4, 3x6) for company. The duo took time to get going but lusty hits in the last five overs meant they added 85 runs off 49 balls to help the Falcons cross the 150-run mark.