SoBo Mumbai Falcons storm into final with dominant win over Bandra Blasters

SoBo Mumbai Falcons entered the T20 Mumbai League final with a dominant six-wicket win over Bandra Blasters. Powered by Ishan Mulchandani’s unbeaten fifty and a strong bowling display, the Falcons will face MSC Maratha Royals in the final.

Hyderabad: Riding on its fifth clinical performance in six games in the tournament so far, SoBo Mumbai Falcons made short work of Bandra Blasters in the second semifinal of the T20 Mumbai league’s third edition.

The six-wicket win, achieved with a whopping 32 balls to spare, meant the Falcons will square off against MSC Maratha Royals, to be played at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday night.

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After restricting the Blasters to 130 for eight, ‘player of the match’ Ishan Mulchandani’s third fifty of the season meant the Falcons cruised home in the 15th over and gave the Mumbaikars who turned up in
numbers to support them enough time for catching a local train.

Ever since captain Shreyas Iyer walked out to the toss – taking over the reins from Angkrish Raghuvanshi – the Falcons did not even put a foot wrong till Shreyansh Rai scored the winning run off Vikram Auti’s part-time spin.

Shreyas had no hesitation in sticking to the strategy of opting to bowl first once the coin landed in his favour. And Siddharth Raut – one of the pacers of the tournament – saw the back of dangerous Suved
Parkar – by forcing the star of Royals’ last match into a nick to Angkrish Raghuvanshi behind the wickets. In his next, Raut accounted for left-handed Auti to peg the Blasters back and the spinners took
over.

A decent Powerplay was the need of the hour and Raghuvanshi and Mulchandani did just that, with the lanky Raghuvanshi taking the initiative. He welcomed Dhanit Raut’s pace into the attack with a six
over square leg and then cut him through point for a four in the second. In the next over, left-arm spinner Karsh Kothari was at the receiving end, with two consecutive sixes.

While Raghuvanshi was caught off the next ball in a bid to make it a hat-trick of sixes, his 14-ball 27 meant the Falcons had raced to 30 from the first three overs. Despite losing partners at the other end,
Mulchandani continued his silken touch with the willow. He found an able ally in Akash Parkar as the duo ensured a quick finish to the game.

The scores: NaMo Bandra Blasters 130 all out in 20 overs (Akash Anand 31, Dhrumil Matkar 34, Akash Parkar 3/16, Siddharth Raut 2/16) lost to SoBo Mumbai Falcons 131/5, 14.4 overs (Angkrish Raghuvanshi 27, Ishan Mulchandani 52 n.o., Akash Parkar 32, Sagar Chhabria 2/33).