Thanks to fine unbeaten knock by Pratik Patle and solid contributions from openers skipper Mukesh Gupta and Manjer Gupta, MCC (Blue) defeated MCC (Green) by six wickets to storm into the final of the Twister-MCC-Pro40 League-season-3 at the Oval Maidan here today. The win also proved to be a sweet revenge for the winners, who were beaten by them during the league phase. They will next meet MCC (Red), who made the title round by virtue of having been finished at the top of the table. The final will be played next week.
Man of the Match Pratik Patle with the trophy he won at the Twister-MCC-Pro40 Cricket League-season-3.
Put into the bat, MCC (Green) did well to put up a fighting total of 168 for eight off the allotted 40 0vers with their opener Shubham Nene top scoring with sedate 67 and Pritam Shinde hitting up run-a-ball 39. However, chasing 169 to win, MCC (Blue) top order clicked as first openers Mukesh Gupta and Manjar Gupta added 52 runs before they were separated. They did lose momentum thereafter and lost a couple of wickets. But Pratik Patle and Shikhar Thakur batted purposefully and without taking any undue risks to achieve their target without being separated. Pratik remained unbeaten with 44, which contained six fours and a six.
Brief scores: MCC (Green) 168/8 off 40 0vers (Shubham Nene 67, Pritam Shinde 39; Sujeet Kanojia 3/17, Sachin Solanki 2/31) lost to MCC (Blue) 172/4 off 26.3 overs (Mukesh Gupta 34, Manjar Gupta 38, Pratik Patle n.o. 44) by 6 wkts. Man of the match -Pratik Patle.