An injured Prithvi Shaw batted through the pain barrier to guide North Mumbai Panthers to T20 Mumbai League 2019 title on Sunday (May 26) in front of a packed Wankhede Stadium. Prithvi won the Man-of-the-series award. He hit 61 not out in the final against SoBo SuperSonics
Mumbai: Prithvi Shaw’s gutsy innings (61 not out off 55 balls, 3x4, 2x6) followed by outstanding spells from the pace duo of Atif Attarwala (3/20) and Prathamesh Dake (3/19) led the North Mumbai Panthers to their maiden T20 Mumbai League title, with a narrow 12-run win against SoBo SuperSonics in the final of the league’s second edition on Sunday (May 26).
Shaw’s stellar effort despite suffering an injury mid-way through the innings and his 67-run partnership for the fifth wicket with Shashikant Kadam (37 off 36b, 2x4, 1x6) rescued the Panthers’ innings and set the SuperSonics’ a target of 144 in front of a jam-packed Wankhede Stadium.
While the SuperSonics crumbled under the big-match pressure, the pace duo of Dake and Attarwala responded to Shaw’s impressive captaincy tactics. And the grand old man of Mumbai maidans, leggie Pravin Tambe, then finished the match by pocketing the last two wickets and bowling SuperSonics out for 131 with two balls to go.
Dake and Attarwala played their parts to perfection. Attarwala, the young left-arm pacer, got the prized scalp of SuperSonics captain Jay Bista in the eighth over, forcing him to nick it safely into Swapnil Salvi’s gloves behind the wicket.
Dake then brought the Panthers back in the game, striking once each in the 14th, 16th and 18th overs. The key wicket was that of leftie Parag Khanapurkar (43 off 33b, 2x4, 1x6) in the 16th over. Two balls after Khanapurkar’s skier popped out of Shaw’s palms, Dake bowled a perfect bouncer - perhaps the ball of the tournament - which Khanapurkar could only top-edge to the keeper.
With 21 required off the last two overs, Attarwala came to the party by seeing the back of dangerous Dhrumil Matkar for his third wicket. And the last ball saw all-rounder Rohan Raje falling short of his crease while attempting a second run for retaining strike, courtesy a flat throw by Vikrant Auti and Attarwala collecting the ball and whipping the bails in no time. Tambe then completed the formalities with two wickets in four balls, conceding just a single.
Earlier, Shaw played a superb innings. The stylish opener may not have scored a boundary off the last 38 balls he faced. His strike rate may not be ideal for a batsman remaining unbeaten in a T20 innings. And he may have been dropped thrice — on 44, 51 and 53 — and survived even more run-out chances.
Still, considering that for more than half of the Panthers’ innings — Shaw saw his hip injury recurring to restrict his movements — and the fact that he found the first reliable ally in Kadam at No. 6, the innings was extremely useful for helping the Panthers put on a respectable total.
When Kadam joined Shaw in the middle in the sixth over, the Panthers had been rattled to 49/4. Seasoned pacer Rohan Raje and an on-song left-arm spinner had struck in their first overs to reduce Panthers to 11 for 2.
Despite Shaw displaying his artistry through the on-side, captain Jay Bista’s change of plan by bringing in death-over specialist Deepak Shetty into the attack worked wonders. Shetty got rid of key batsmen Karan Nande and Sairaj Patil in his first three balls and Shaw and Kadam had no choice but to get into the rebuilding mode.
Despite struggling with his injury, Shaw stretched himself for converting ones into twos. With both the batsmen unable to time the ball off an impressive spell by the SuperSonics bowlers, strike rotation turned out to be the highlight of the Panthers innings, which saw only eight fours and three sixes. The 67-run partnership before Kadam miscued a heave off Matkar in the 16th over ensured that the Panthers could put SuperSonics under pressure.
Awards
Man of the final: Atif Attarwala
Man of the series: Prithvi Shaw
Best Batsman: Aditya Tare
Best Bowler: Dhrumil Matkar
Best Emerging Player: Kruthik Hanagavadi
Best Developmental Player: Deepak Shetty
Maximum sixes: Sairaj Patil
Brief scores: North Mumbai Panthers 143/7 in 20 overs (Prithvi Shaw 61 not out, Shashikant Kadam 37; Deepak Shetty 3/24, Dhrumil Matkar 2/27, Rohan Raje 2/27) beat SoBo SuperSonics 131 all out in 19.4 overs (Parag Khanapurkar 43; Prathamesh Dake 3/19, Atif Attarwala 3/20, Pravin Tambe 2/38).
Result: North Mumbai Panthers won by 12 runs.
Man of the Match: Atif Attarwala (4-0-20-3) and scored 8 runs in 4 balls (1X6)
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