Mumbai continue winning streak

The star-studded Mumbai team continued their fine run registering a comfortable seven-wicket win over Gujarat in the West Zone T20 cricket tournament at the Deccan Gymkhana on Wednesday.

Impressive bowling from Iqbal Abdulla and Paul Valthathy, followed by an unbeaten 82-run partnership between Rohit Sharma and Aditya Tare fetched Mumbai their second successive win. With this win Mumbai are leading the table with eight points.

Zaheer Khan gave an early jolt to Gujarat by removing opener Rakesh Makwana (5) in his first over. Bhavik Thakkar (30) and skipper Parthiv Patel (25) stabilised the innings. Though, Gujarat managed to maintain a good run-rate, they lost wickets at regular intervals. In the death overs, Jay Desai came up with a 32-ball 41 laced with three boundaries and a couple of sixes.

Mumbai’s left-arm spinner Abdulla did a good job by restricting Gujarat batsmen giving away just 19 runs in four overs. Valthathy proved a perfect partner for him by taking Desai and Thakkar’s crucial wickets.

Later, Gujarat’s toothless bowling attack and poor fielding made the task easier for the Mumbai boys. Though their opening pair Valthathy and Jaffar returned without contributing much, Sharma and wicket-keeper batsman Tare comfortably raced towards the target. Sharma contributed 43 from 33 balls with the help of three boundaries and two sixes, while Tare missed his half-century mark by one run. He had five hits to the fences and twice he cleared the ropes.

“Even after a good start we struggled for the win in the last match, but today we dominated right from the start,” said Mumbai coach Pravin Amre. When asked about Zaheer Khan’s comeback he said, “He is pushing himself hard in this tournament. He bowled confidently in the death overs.”

Meanwhile, Gujarat coach Jayendra Sehgal agreed that the sloppy fielding took the match away from them. “It was a close match. If we wouldn’t have dropped a couple of catches in the first few over, the result would have been different,” he said.

Brief scores: Gujarat 160-7 (Jay Desai 41, Bhavik Thakkar 30, Parthiv Patel 25; Paul Valthathy 2-23, Zaheer Khan 2-34, Iqbal Abdulla 1-19) lost to Mumbai 161-3 (Rohit Sharma 43 n.o., Aditya Tare 49 n.o., Paul Valthathy 26)