NaMo Bandra Blasters Vs. Shivaji Park Lions, Iyer, Khan lead Blasters to victory over Lions

Mumbai League T20-Photo By Sachin Murdeshwar

Mumbai League T20-Photo By Sachin Murdeshwar

MUMBAI, 12 MARCH, 2018 (GPN) : Namo Mumbai Blasters got their T20 Mumbai League campaign off to a great start, beating Shivaji Park Lions by 12 runs in the afternoon game at the Wankhede Stadium here on Monday.

Being put in to bat first, Blasters scored 182 for five, riding on half centuries from skipper Shreyas Iyer and Aman Khan.

Lions couldn’t get the kind of start that was required in such a stiff chase. Just like the opponents, Lions couldn’t make the best use of Power-play overs, and the asking rate kept climbing up steadily.  Bravesh Shetty kept finding boundaries from one end, but couldn’t get the support from the other end long enough to really threaten the Blasters’ total. Shetty scored 52 from 35 balls with the help of four fours and three sixes.

Raunaq Sharma and Hardik Tamore tried to make a match out of it in the death overs with an important 33-run partnership in 17 balls, but Prashant Bhoir kept his head to get rid of the duo, and helped the Blasters to a 12-run win. Lions ended up scoring 170 for 9 in their chase.

Namo Bandra Blasters assessed the conditions very well during their innings. Experienced skipper Shreyas Iyer took his time to settle and used the deft touch to great effect keeping the scoreboard ticking.  Siddharth Raut and Roystan Dias bowled a tight opening spell as Blasters managed to score just 33 runs in the Power-play overs.

Once the innings neared the half-way stage, Iyer began to cut lose, and brought up his fifty in the 12th over. His partnership of 57 runs (39 balls) with Nikhil Patil set things up perfectly for Aman Khan to take the game forward. Iyer scored 51 off 33 balls with the help of seven fours and a six, while Patil’s 27 came from 22 balls.

Khan took it on from there as Blasters smashed 75 runs in the last six overs. None of the Lions’ bowler was spared as Khan smacked five sixes and four fours, most of them in the final five overs of the innings. Eknath Kerkar scored a useful 22 at the other end as he and Khan added 67 crucial runs for the fourth wicket in just 5.1 overs. Khan remained unbeaten on 62 from 28 balls, striking at over 200 per 100 balls.

Brief scores: Namo Mumbai Blasters 182 for 5 in 20 overs (Aman Khan 62, Shreyas Iyer 51, Sagar Trivedi 2-37, Shivam Dubey 2-38) beat Shivaji Park Lions 170 for 9 in 20 overs (Bravesh Shetty 52, Swapnil Salvi 34, Prashant Bhoir 3-28, Azhar Ansari 2-34) – Ends

About the Author

Sachin Murdeshwar
Sachin Murdeshwar is a Sr.Journalist and Columnist in several Mainline Newspapers and Portals.He is an ardent traveller and likes to explore destinations to the core.