T20 Mumbai League, Match 18 Review: North Mumbai Panthers thrash Triumph Knights MNE to all but seal semifinal spot

Riding on Sairaj Patil’s quickfire fifty, North Mumbai Panthers thrashed Triumphs Knights MNE by 44 runs to all but seal their spot in the semifinal of the ongoing T20 Mumbai League. With 3 wins from five games and their net run-rate also good, the Panthers look set to progress ahead of the group stage. On the other hand, Knights’ hopes are now hanging by balance after they finish the league stage with 2 wins from 5 games. As many as two teams can finish with three wins on Thursday which will see Knights’ journey coming to an end.

Asked to bat first, the Panthers were off to a quickfire start with Prithvi Shaw hitting a flurry of boundaries. However, the joy was short lived as Mohit Avasthi castled in-form Vikrant Auti to reduce the Panthers to 25 for 1 at the end of the second over. Five balls and two runs later, the Panthers suffered a huge blow when their skipper Shaw was run out by his Knights counterpart Suryakumar Yadav for 23 from 11 balls.

Jude Singh and Vishal Dhagaonkar did not last long either as the Panthers found themselves reeling at 55 for 4. Swapnil Salvi and Patil then took the score past the 100-run mark. Royston Dias ended the stand when he accounted for Salvi who scored 19 from 26 balls. But Patil remained till the end to make sure the Panthers put up a fighting total of 153 for 6. Patil scored 59 from 39 balls with the help of four boundaries and as many sixes.

In reply, the Knights started disastrously and lost both their openers – Siddhant Adhatrao and Sumit Ghadigaonkar – for just 30 runs on the board. Six runs later, Parikshit Valasangkar departed too while captain Suryakumar also failed to bail his team out of trouble and departed for just 14.  Half of the Knights team was back in the hut with just 66 runs on the scoreboard.

At one stage it was looking like they would struggle to even cross the 100-run mark before Akash Parkar (20*) and Mohit Avasthi (17*) helped them avoid that embarrassment. However, the effort was not enough as the Knights ended on a paltry 109 for 7.

Brief scores:

North Mumbai Panthers: 153 for 6 (Sairaj Patil 59, Prithvi Shaw 23; Royston Dias 2-34)

Triumph Knights MNE: 109 for 7 (Akash Parkar 20*; Pravin Tambe 2-17)

Result: North Mumbai Panthers won by 44 runs.

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