T20: third consecutive win for Mumbai

Mumbai skipper,Wasim Jaffer,led by example with a brilliant innings of 95 runs as he guided his team to their third victory in a row when they defeated Saurashtra by 63 runs in the T20 West Zone League at the Poona Club ground on Thursday.

Saurashtra captain,Jayadeo Niranhan won the toss and chose to field first. Mumbai’s opening duo of Paul Valtathy and Wasim Jaffar got their team off to a good start before Valtathy perished for a score of 18. Ajinkya Rahane who came in at number 3 did not last long and was out without troubling the scorers. The Mumbai innings was looking shaky and needed a good partnership. The pairing of Jaffer and Rohit Sharma,provided exactly this. With all their international experience to back them,both the batsmen were hitting the ball to the fence at will. Jaffer went on to score 95 runs off 61 balls,which included 13 fours and 2 big sixes. Sharma maintained his consistency in this tournament by notching up 41 runs off 27 balls which included four boundaries and two sixes.

Ajit Agarkar’s quickfire 25 helped Mumbai reach a total of 186 runs in their allotted 20 overs.

Sandeep Maniyar got three wickets for 32 runs. In reply,Saurashtra managed to score only 128 runs for the loss of five wickets in their 20 overs. Sameer Qureshi top scored with 33 runs for Saurashtra, while Dhaval Kulkarni bowled well for the Mumbai team picking up two wickets for 14 runs.