The Mitsui Shojit-20 League got off to a terrific starts with one of the strong favourites Mumbai Police Cityriders were given a jolt by Bandra Heroes who humbled them by 7 wickets in their opening tie in the double-leg Mitsui Shoji T-20 League, sponsored by Lal Bharwaney and held at Police Gymkhana ground here today.
Chief guest Major Rahul Pandey, OC, Kalina Military Camp along with Umesh Khanvilkar MCA Secrtary and Jwala Singh, chairman during the inauguration of Mitsui Shoji T20 League by tossing the coin.
Put in to bat, Mumbai Police Cityriders, inspite of fine knock of 53, Mumbai opener Jay Bista, could muster only 127 for eight in the allotted overs. Bista’s knock contained eight hits to the boundary. Chasing 128 to win, Bandra Heroes were given a pretty good start as their openers hit up 34 runs in four overs before both fell to the guiles of spinner Vinayak Bhoir. They did lose another wicket,but then the pair of skipper Sujit Nayak (n.o.33 -3×4, 1×6) and Khazir Dafedar ( n.o.45 – 5×4, 2×6) saw them through without any further hiccups. Ex India cricketer Wasim Jaffer is also part of the Bandra Heroes team.
Earlier in the morning as a part of the pre-opening ceremony, Sports Journalist of Mumbai did well to hit up 128 for 3 0ff 15 overs.thanks to some aggressive batting by skipper Devendra Pandey (27) and lefthander Taus Rizvi (25), However,hosts Mitsui Shoji XI overhauled their score in 14 overs with Mukesh Gupta (71) and Sachin Upadhaya (34) took them home for the loss of just two wickets.
Brief scores: Mumbai Police Ciityriders 127/8 (Jay Bista 53 (8×4), Shubham Ranjane 20;(Shahsank Atharve 2/14, Khizar Dafedar 2/31). Man-of-the-match: Khizar Dafedar .