Mumbai makes it 2 out of 3; Wins against MP in 20-20 championship

Ahmedabad, Apr 18 (UNI) Star studded Mumbai consolidated its position for a berth in the final of the Twenty-20 Championship defeating Madhya Pradesh by 44 runs at Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium at Motera near here today.

Powered by a sparkling knock of 57 runs in just 35 balls by middle order batsman Amol Mazumdar, Mumbai scored 188 runs at an impressive run rate of 9.4 runs per over.

However, Indian Maestro Sachin Tendulkar had a disappointing day managing just 13 runs.

The win gave four points to Mumbai while MP got no point from the match. This is the second victory for Mumbai in twenty-20 championship to take its point tally to eight points. Earlier it had beaten Haryana, but lost to Tamil Nadu.

Amol's 57 runs enterprising knock was laced with a towering six and four hits to the rope. Besides Amol, R Sharma, who scored 39 runs in 25 balls, and M Khote, who made unbeaten 31 runs in just 17 balls, helped Mumbai to set an uphill task of 189 runs for Madhya Pradesh in just 20 overs.

Madhya Pradesh batsmen began their chase on the wrong foot by losing four valuable wickets in 4.3 over with score board showing just 36 runs for the team.

The only resistence was put up by Brijesh Tomar and Rahul Bakshi, who were involved in a 75 runs partnership for the 5th wicket.

Brijesh had made individual contribution of 57 runs in 56 balls, which included six boundaries and one six. Rahul's 40 runs was made in 31 balls with three hits to the fence and one six.

Brief Score: Mumbai: 188 runs for loss of 6 wickets in 20 overs (Amol Mazumdar 57, R Sharma 39, V Indulkar 18, Abbas Ali 2 for 39) Madhya Pradesh: 144 runs for loss of 6 wickets in 20 overs (Brijesh Tomar 57, Rahul Bakshi 40, Ajit Agarkar 2 for 27) Result: Mumbai won by 44 runs.

UNI