It took a phenomenal fightback by Suryakumar Yadav and some textbook death bowling by the fast-bowlers to take Triumph Knights Mumbai North East to the first T20 Mumbai title with a 3-run victory over Shivaji Park Lions at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday. The Lions played well but narrowly missed out in the end to land up second-best on the day.

Suryakumar Yadav continued the fine form he had discovered in the first Qualifier and stroked an unbeaten 90 to take his team to a strong total. The Lions looked like they would chase down the total at one point until Vaibhav Singh and Atif Attarwala brought their team back with a deadly spell of pace bowling.

Electing to bowl first, Shivaji Park Lions’ woes in the field continued with some poor slip fielding giving Shikhar Thakur an early life. But the Lions’ fast bowlers were vicious, moving the ball and putting the Knights’ batsmen in all kinds of trouble.

They had already sent back half the Triumph Knights side by the 6^th over after Siddharth Raut and Royston Dias were both denied hat-tricks in successive over. The Knights looked completely clueless against the Shivaji Park seam attack, being unable to read either the line or the movement on a Wankhede pitch which was favouring the batsmen.

Raut bowled out his 4 overs in a single spell, picking up 2 wickets and giving away just 11 runs. At the halfway stage of their innings the Knights were tottering at 48 for 5.

Excellent spell by Siddharth Raut 4-2-11-2 @SPLionsMum @T20Mumbai @vinodkambli349 #T20Mumbai #CricketChaRaja #TKvSPL

— BhaskarGanekar (@BhaskarGanekar) 21 March 2018

Captain Suryakumar Yadav and Parikshit Valsangkar turned on the heat in the middle overs, bringing up their half centuries with a good strike rate. Yadav was particularly brutal on the bowlers, taking them on and scoring 60 off the last three overs of the innings.

He remained unbeaten on 90 as the score went from 34 for 5, to 182 for 5 off their 20 overs. Yadav and Valsangkar were involved in the highest partnership of the series, scoring 148 runs for the 7^th wicket.

Captain Bravish Shetty led the Lions’ fightback after Yadav’s assault, whacking 5 fours and 1 six on the way to a 17-ball 32. But even in spite of showing good intent throughout, the Shivaji Park top-order lost their way and conceded 3 early wickets.

It was up to the pair who brought the team victory in the second Qualifier, Alpesh Ramjani and Hardik Tamore, to build the innings once again, and they delivered. After a watchful start, scoring below a strike rate of 100, Ramjani started some steady acceleration after the 10^th over.

However, the Knights’ pacers came back well from there to peg the Lions back with some deceptive change of pace combined with good line and length. Atif Attarwala, in particular, was extremely effective, giving away less than 6 runs an over and picking up 2 wickets in the process.

It all came down to Shivam Dubey in the end, as the team needed 26 in the last over.

Dubey started things off in fine style with a huge six off part-timer Shashank Singh. He dispatched the next ball for a four before hitting two massive sixes once again making the equation four runs off the final ball.

Watch out for this guy .. Shivam Dubey .. hard hitter and a bowler who can chip in with crucial overs .. plus uncanny resemblance to Yuvi !! @SPLionsMum @T20Mumbai

— Sushant Anaokar (@ThyOldMonk) 21 March 2018

But Singh held his nerve and surprised Dubey with a bouncer, beating him all ends up and getting the game home for the Triumph Knights. They won an exciting final by a mere 3 run margin.

Score kya hua?

Triumph Knights Mumbai North East 182 for 5 (Suryakumar Yadav 90*, Parikshit Valsangkar 59*, Siddharth Raut 2-11) beat

Shivaji Park Lions 179 for 8 (Alpesh Ramjani 48, Hardik Tamore 39, Vaibhav Singh 3-38) by 3 runs

For the complete match scorecard, click here.