T20 Mumbai League 2019, Final, Review: Sensible Prithvi Shaw, splendid Atif Attarwala win it for the Panthers

Eight teams, 23 matches, and the action has finally culminated with the North Mumbai Panthers emerging as the winners in the second edition of T20 Mumbai League. Skipper Prithvi Shaw was great on the night of the final. He analyzed the conditions well and played a sensible knock. His efforts were backed up by the bowlers really well. Atif Attarwala and Prathamesh Dake bowled brilliant spells and tied the opposition down at the death. These excellent efforts helped the Panthers register a 12-run win over the SuperSonics.

Prithvi Shaw pushes the Panthers to a fightable total

The Prithvi Shaw-led North Mumbai Panthers felt putting runs on the board would be ideal and thus elected to bat first. However, to their dismay, they lost two wickets quite early in the innings. Opener Vikrant Auti was dismissed for a duck while Karan Nande could only get two runs. Wicket-keeper Swapnil Salvi took the attack to the bowlers and ensured his team got to a good total in the powerplay. But misery struck again in the sixth over.

Salvi got out for 18 while Sairaj Patil was dismissed for a duck. Being brought down in 49/4 overs, Prithvi Shaw and Shashikant Kadam started the rebuilding process. They couldn’t take many risks and played slowly. After scoring a 36-ball 37, Kadam got out to Dhrumil Matkar. Shaw took the onus and batted right till the end. He remained unbeaten on 61 off 55 balls as his side got to 143/7 in 20 overs.

Atif Attarwale bowls high-quality overs at the death

Just like the Panthers, the SoBo SuperSonics also suffered a big blow early on by losing opener Japjeet Randhawa for a golden duck. Hersh Tank, batting at number three, looked good for his 14-ball 18 but couldn’t maximise on the start. Skipper Jay Gokul Bista also couldn’t accelerate the innings and Atif Attarwala got him caught for 21 off 22 balls. The run rate kept soaring up after this slow start and the onus was now on the middle order.

However, Parag Khanapurkar tried to put things back on track with Yogesh Takawale. The wicket-keeper, however, could only score 18 runs from 19 balls before he perished. Parag also got out at a crucial juncture in the 16th over after scoring 43 runs. Things got really tight at the end with Atif Attarwale bowling brilliantly. 14 runs were required off the last over and Pravin Tambe was handed over the responsibility. The leg-spinner picked up two wickets in the over and handed his team a 12-run win.

Brief Scores:

North Mumbai Panthers: 143/7 in 20 overs (Prithvi Shaw 61*, Shashikant Kadam 37, Deepak Shetty 3/24)

SoBo SuperSonics: 131/10 in 19.4 overs (Parag Khanapurkar 43, Hersh Tank 18, Prathamesh Dake 3/19)

Result: North Mumbai Panthers won the match by 12 runs.

Man of the Match: Prithvi Shaw