Triumph Knights Mumbai North East played some good all-round cricket to reach the first T20 Mumbai finals by beating SoBo SuperSonics in the first Qualifier at the Wankhede Stadium on Monday. Knights’ captain Suryakumar Yadav finally found some form and led from the front with a knock of 63, punctuated by 5 fours and 4 sixes.

Chase Masters Triumph Knights Mumbai North East lost an important toss and were put in an unfamiliar position, being made to set a target on a beautiful looking Wankhede wicket. Their tentativeness showed early as the batsmen were in two minds, whether to go for the big shots or preserve wickets. But their captain Yadav brought all his experience into play to hold his nerves in a big match and ensure his team set a big total for SoBo SuperSonics. Tweaker Kalpesh Sawant spun a web around the team from South Mumbai when they came in to chase and picked up three wickets for 13 runs, keeping his side ahead throughout.

After a good 40-run opening partnership between Shikhar Thakur and Shashank Singh, the Knights middle-order once again missed out, leaving the responsibility of consolidation on the usual suspects, Suryakumar Yadav and Mr Dependable Aakash Parkar.

Coming in at 79 for 4, Parkar kept his end up while captain Yadav went ballistic at the other end. Yadav scored at a brisk rate to reach 63 off 35 balls before being beaten all ends up by Harmeet Singh.

Parkar found the going difficult in the closing overs but Parikshit Valsangkar stepped up to the challenge and cleared the field a few times to take the team from Mumbai North East to 162 in their allotted 20 overs.

Love the intensity and the competition in the on-going @T20Mumbai league. Both the teams, #SoboSupersonics and #MumbaiNorthEast fighting it out for a place the finals. All the best.

— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) March 19, 2018

Chasing a ‘tricky target’, as Suryakumar Yadav put it, SoBo SuperSonics lost their form player Jay Bista off the first ball of their innings. Then, in a bid to get going against the spinners, they lost three more quick wickets to be reduced to 50 for 4 in 7.3 overs.

SoBo’s hero from Sunday’s match, Gaurav Jathar, and opener Aakarshit Gomel made an effort to consolidate but the ever-increasing required run rate made things very difficult for the SuperSonics. They remained behind the required rate consistently and ended up needing an unlikely 42 off the last 6 balls.

Matkar made a fighting 25 off 16 balls but it was too little too late for the SuperSonics. They finished with just 122 runs before the fall of all their wickets.

Score kya hua?

Triumph Knights Mumbai North East 162 for 6 (Suryakumar Yadav 63, Shashank Singh 34, Abhishek Nayar 2-19) beat

SoBo SuperSonics 122 all-out (Aakarshit Gomel 32, Dhrumil Matkar 25, Kalpesh Sawant 3-13) by 40 runs

For the complete match scorecard, click here.