Mumbai make it two on the trot

A solid partnership between Aditya Tare and Rohit Sharma helped Mumbai win their second consecutive match in the T20 West Zone league on Wednesday.

A solid partnership between Aditya Tare and Rohit Sharma helped Mumbai win their second consecutive match in the T20 West Zone league on Wednesday. In a match played at the Deccan Gymkhana,Mumbai comprehensively defeating Gujarat by seven wickets,with and an over and a half to spare .

Gujarat won the toss and elected to bat on what looked to be a batsman friendly pitch. They notched up a reasonable total of 160 runs in their allotted 20 overs thanks to some last minute power hitting by middle order batsman Jay Desai. He scored a total of 41 runs off just 32 balls which included three boundaries and two sixes. Opener Parthiv Patel made a good contribution by scoring a quick fire 25 runs. It was Bhavik Thakkars innings (30 runs of 28 balls) that stabilized the innings and helped his team to a decent total. Zaheer Khan was the pick of the Mumbai bowlers and picked up two important wickets of Rakesh Makwana and Niraj Patel to restrict the opposition total.

Tuesdays hero with the bat,Paul Valtathy,displayed his all round ability by bowling a good spell. He picked up the wickets of Bhavik

Thakkar and Jay Desai and gave away just 23 runs in his quota of overs.

In reply,Mumbai reached their target with seven wickets and 1.3 overs to spare thanks to some big hitting by keeper Aditya Tare and Rohit Sharma. Paul Valtathy started the innings well and scored 26 quick runs which included five hits to the fence. Wasim Jaffer supported him well with 19 runs of his own but did not last long. After Ajinkya Rahane also got out cheaply,things were looking bleak for Mumbai. But Aditya Tare and Rohit Sharma stroked the ball with confidence and steered their team home. Tare scored 49 runs of 36 balls which included five fours and two sixes,while Sharma scored 43 runs of 33 balls which included three fours and two sixes. For Gujarat,NirajPatel,Rohit Dahiya and Siddharth Trivedi picked up a wicket each but could not cause enough damage to the Mumbai batting line up.

In the other match that was played on Wednesday Maharashtra overran Saurashtra in a close encounter.

Batting first Saurashtra managed to score 107 for the loss of 10 wickets in 19.1 overs with Chirag Pathak-26 runs,Sitanshu Kotak-25 runs,and Rakesh Dhruve-20 runs,being the top scorers for the team. Maharashtra on the other hand scored 110 for the loss of 8 wickets in 18.5 overs with Ganesh Gaikwad-33 runs,Rohit Motwani-25 runs and Rohan Bhosale scoring 18 runs for them.

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Brief scores: Saurashtra: 107 for 10 in 19. 1 overs lost to Maharashtra 110 for 8 in 18.5 overs.
Chirag Pathak-26 runs,Sitanshu Kotak-25 runs,Rakesh Dhruve-20 runs; Sajin Sureshnath 2 for 12 and Ganesh Gaikwad 2 for 24
Maharashtra: Ganesh Gaikwad-33 runs,Rohit Motwani-25 runs Rohan Bhosale 18 runs;
Rakesh Dhruve 4 for 20.

Todays matches:
At Poona Club: Saurashtra vs Mumbai
At Deccan Gymkhana: Gujarat vs Baroda

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