T20 Mumbai League: Akhil Herwadkar steers ARCS Andheri to thrilling win over Shivaji Park Lions

Riding on their skipper Akhil Herwadkar’s unbeaten half-century, ARCS Andheri sealed a thrilling four-wicket victory against Shivaji Park Lions. This is their second win of the season in three games. Chasing 160, the Andheri unit crossed the line with one ball to spare.

Andheri made a quickfire start to their chase with Herwadkar and fellow opener Sufiyan Shaikh adding 67 runs in just 35 balls. Shivam Dube gave the Lions the much-needed breakthrough by dismissing Shaikh for 25. Andheri then lost three quick wickets to find themselves reeling at 100 for 4. Pankaj Jaiswal and Azhar Ansari then gave some good support to Herwadkar as the score crossed 150-run mark.

But with the required rate mounting, the game was steadily drifting towards Lions. With 32 runs needed from the final two overs, Lions were looking set to walk away with all the points. However, Herwadkar hit Shivam Malhotra for two fours and as many sixes in the 19th over to turn the games on its head. Iqbal Abdullah then dispatched Dube for a four on the penultimate delivery of the game to take Andheri over the line.

Earlier in the game, a quickfire fifty from Raunaq Sharma helped Shivaji Park Lions recovered from a middle-order collapse to post a challenging 159 for 6 in the allotted 20 overs. Put in to bat first, the Lions were off to a good start with openers Swapnil Pradhan and Sachin Yadav giving the side a quick start. The two added 28 runs inside three overs before Kevin Almeida accounted for Yadav.

Coming at number three, Rudra Dhanday did not look fluent with the bat but Pradhan made sure to keep the scoreboard ticking as Lions finished the powerplay overs on 47 for 1. Dhanday’s short and troublesome innings then came to an end when he was run out for 6 off 8 balls to leave his side reeling at 61 for 2. 1 run later, Pradhan fell too before Tushar Deshpande dismissed Hardik Tamore to leave Lions reeling at 69 for 4.

Highly-rated Shivam Dube failed to deliver either and departed for just 9 as Lions found themselves five down for just 85. But before Andheri could make further inroads in the game, skipper Siddesh Lad and Sharma stopped the rot with a 30-run stand. Azhar Ansari ended the stand when he accounted for Lad. However, Sharma remained till the end and scored an unbeaten 51 from 30 balls to guide his side to a good total. His knock was studded with 3 fours and four sixes including three maximums in the powerplay.

Brief scores: Shivaji Park Lions 159/6 in 20 overs (Raunaq Sharma 51, Swapnil Pradhan 44; Iqbal Abdulla 2/16) lost to ARCS Andheri 163/6 in 19.5 overs (Akhil Herwadkar 79*; Shivam Dube 2/41).

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