Sri Lankan fast bowler Chaminda Vaas will be the star attraction for defending champions Ghatkopar Jets, as they take on Mumbai Police City Riders in the final of the Mitsui Shoji 5-Team Double leg-League here at Police Gymkhana ground, here on Friday. This is the sixth year of the competition, which is unique in more than one way. The final will be played under floodlights from 6.30 p.m. onwards.
Chaminda Vaas
It is one event, where there is either a Ranji trophy, or first class player alongwith with bunch of talented but untested players, including some of the juniors, who get an opportunity to play in the company of top players.
So far there has been plethora of upsets during the league phase, but in the end it was last year’s finalists Ghatkopar Jets and Mumbai Police City Riders , who once again will be vie for the top honours. “We will try our best to wrest the trophy from the defending champions,” said one of the seasoned players of the police force. But then Ghatkopar Jets, will have the added advantage of having the services of Sri Lanka’s famed fast bowler Chamina Vaas. Though they finished at No.4 in the league, yet they packed off hot favourites Bandra Heroes, who had topped the league with seven wins, in the semifinals.
Brief scores of the semi finals:
Ghatkopar Jets 213/7 off 20 overs (Karan Nandey 81 (10×4, 3×6); Punit Tripathi 34, Pushkaraj Chavan 41; Manish Rao 2/35, Akshay Darekar 2/35) bt Banda Heroes
152 all out in 17.3 overs, ( Jiniv Joshi 31, Swapnil Salvi 37, Alpesh Ramajani 23, Rehmani Sufiyan ; Vishwakarma 3/30, Karan Nandey 4/20) by 61 runs.
Shivaji Park Warriors 108 all out ( Amit Khan 2/30, Aquib Shaikh 2/13, Amit Kadam 2/19) lost to Mumbai Polic City Riders 111/6 off 14.5 overs ( Sunil Patil 24; Shashank Singh 2/22, Parh Sawant 2/25) by four wkts.