Mumbai, June 8 (IANS) The Eagle Thane Strikers, led by Atharva Ankolekar, triumphed over Shreyas Iyer’s SOBO Mumbai Falcons by a margin of 36 runs, securing their place in the semifinals of the T20 Mumbai League 2025 at the Wankhede Stadium here on Saturday.
The standout performance came from captain Ankolekar and star player Sairaj Patil, contributing significantly to the Strikers’ third win in four matches. Patil emerged as the top scorer, amassing 61 runs from 37 balls, and later made a significant impact with the ball by taking four wickets. Despite the defeat, Shreyas Iyer’s SOBO Mumbai Falcons advanced to the next stage with a total of six points.
In another match of the day, the MSC Maratha Royals claimed victory over ARCS Andheri by six wickets and earned a spot in the semi-finals.
Earlier in the day, Shams Mulani-led Aakash Tigers MWS rode a power-packed batting performance to pip Prithvi Shaw’s North Mumbai Panthers by 22 runs in a rain-hit T20 Mumbai League 2025 contest at the Wankhede Stadium here on Saturday. With heavy rain forcing a delayed start, the match was reduced to five overs a side.
Chasing a challenging target of 67 runs on a pitch which was offering quite a fair bit of movement, the Panthers were off to a cautious start. With only 10 runs coming off the first two overs, Panthers openers Shaw and Divyaansh Saxena tried to force the pace but were pegged back by some incisive bowling and the slow outfield.
With the pressure building up, a visibly frustrated Shaw tried to smash a Sylvester DSouza over long off but was outfoxed by the lack of pace and only managed to offer an easy skier to his opposite number Shams Mulani. As Shaw trudged off the field, the Panthers’ hopes of an unlikely win seemed to depart along with him with the chase coming to a tame end at 45/2.
Earlier, asked to bat first, the Tigers successfully maintained a high scoring rate despite being hampered by the loss of wickets at regular intervals. However, the in-form duo of Mulani (12) and Arjun Dani (10) took the Tigers to 66/7.
Rain washes out SKY show
The rain gods played spoilsport with Saturday’s opening game as the much-anticipated clash between Bandra Blasters, led by Team India star Suryakumar Yadav, and Triumphs Knights MNE was washed out due to a torrential downpour. A large number of cricket fans at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai were left disappointed as the match had shaped up into an absorbing contest.
Asked to bat first, the Bandra Blasters posted 192/7 in their 20 overs thanks to a quickfire half-century by opener Suved Parkar.
Parkar repeatedly brought the sizeable crowd to their feet during his entertaining knock, needing just 37 balls to smash his way to 69 runs with the help of eight boundaries and three sixes. The right-hander was finally sent on his way when he misjudged the bounce of an outswinger by Knights pacer Minad Manjrekar, with Jay Jain latching on to the top edge at third man. Shyamsundar Keshkamat (41) and Vikrant Auti added 62 runs between them before the former perished while going for one big shot too many.
The Knights’ bowlers then smothered the Mumbai lower order with wickets at regular intervals to restrict the Blasters from applying the brakes on the scoring rate.
Faced with a stiff target, the Knights suffered a setback in the very first over when opener Siddhant Aadhhathrao was caught at the boundary. However, the celebrations in the Bandra Blasters camp had hardly died down when the heavens opened up, forcing the players and match officials to scamper off the field.
The tournament is being telecast on Star Sports 1 (English & Hindi), Star Sports 2 (English) and JioHotstar.
Brief scores:
Match 1:
Bandra Blasters 192/7 in 20 overs (Suved Parkar 69, Om Keshkamat 41, Vikrant Auti 36; Minad Manjrekar 3/33, Hitesh Kadam 2/40) vs Triumph Knights MNE 20/1 in 3 overs (Parikshit Valsangkar 12 not out; Royston Dias 1/12): No Result
Match 2:
Aakash Tigers MWS 66/7 in 5 overs (Hardik Tamore 16, Shams Mulani 12; Pratik Mishra 2/31, Pravesh Pal 2/20) beat North Mumbai Panthers 45/2 in 5 overs (Prithvi Shaw 19, Divyaansh Saxena 12; Sylvester Dsouza 1/7) by 21 runs.
Match 3:
ARCS Andheri 179/6 in 20 overs (Prasad Pawar 70, Pragnesh Kanpille 27; Maxwell Swaminathan 2/29) lost to MSC Maratha Royals 182/4 in 18.3 overs (Chinmay Sutar 79, Siddhesh Lad 62; Pragnesh Kanpille 1/16) by six wickets.
Match 4:
Eagle Thane Strikers 151/8 in 20 overs (Sairaj Patil 61, Vinay Kunwar 39; Harsh Ramnath Aghav 3/30) beat SOBO Mumbai Falcons 115 all out in 15.4 overs (Shreyas Iyer 25, Akash Parkar 19; Sairaj Patil 4/19) by 36 runs.
–IANS
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