Mumbai South Central Maratha Royals lifted the T20 Mumbai league title, beating Shreyas Iyer-led SoBo Mumbai Falcons by five wickets at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Thursday.
It was the second consecutive loss for Shreyas in a major T20 final, having failed to take Punjab Kings over the line against Bengaluru Royal Challengers in the IPL 2025 summit clash in Ahmedabad on June 3.
Chasing a modest target of 158, the Siddesh Lad-led Maratha Royals romped home in 19.2 overs, powered by impact player Chinmay Sutar’s 53 off 49 balls (2x4, 2x6) and Awais Khan’s quickfire 24-ball 38 (3x4, 2x6).
Put in to bat, Falcons had a poor start as their IPL stars Shreyas and Angkrish Raghuvanshi struggled to get going. Raghuvanshi departed after scoring a laborious seven off 12 balls while Shreyas hit a boundary and a six in his 17-ball 12, but eventually fell to spinner Vaibhav Mali trying to play a reverse-sweep.
Falcons were tottering at 72 for four when Mayuresh Tandel (50 not out of 32 balls) and Harsh Aghav (45 not out of 28 balls) joined forces and stitched together a 49-ball 85-run partnership for the fifth wicket to help Falcons cross the 150-run mark.
Mali (2-32 in 4 overs) was the pick of the bowlers for Royals while Aditya Dhumal and Maxwell Swaminathan accounted for a wicket apiece.
In reply, Royals raced away to 32 in just 2.5 overs, thanks to some lusty blows by skipper Siddesh and his opening partner Sahil Bhagwanta Jadhav.
Siddesh (15) and Sahil (22) did not last long as Royals slipped to 42 for 2 after a promising start.
However, Sutar played the anchor role to perfection with a steady 50 while the young Khan maintained a high strike-rate with some risky shots.
Although both of them fell in the penultimate over, allrounder Rohan Raje finished the game with a couple of delightful hits in the final over bowled by Akash Parkar.
Before the start of the game, players from both sides observed a one-minute silence to mourn the victims of the tragic Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad.
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