T20 Mumbai, Day 5: Knights look for first win; SuperSonics out to continue their unbeaten run
In the first match of the day, Triumph Knights MNE will take on Eagle Thane Strikers. The teams have had contrasting fortunes so far. While Knights have lost both their games this season, the Strikers beat Aakash Tigers MWS in their last game and will be the more confident of the two teams.
Aditya Tare has been in fine form, scored 128 runs in two games at an average of 64 and has scored fifties in both the games. He has been backed well by Sarfaraz Khan, who scored a match-winning 57* against Aakash Tigers.
For the Knights, it has been a one-man show with the bat as skipper Suryakumar Yadav, who is back after a successful IPL season with the Mumbai Indians, has scored 110 runs in two games, including an unbeaten 90 in the inaugural game of the season. No other batsman has crossed the 60-run mark for them. Strikers' Ankush Jaiswal is in form, taking a hat-trick in the previous game.
Strikers' veteran Mumbai bowler Balwinder Sandhu could be back for this match while there is no news about the availability of Shardul Thakur.
Squad:
Triumphs Knights MNE: Karan Shah, Shikhar Thakur, Parikshit Valasangkar, Sumit Ghadigaonkar(w), Suryakumar Yadav(c), Karan More, Akash Parkar, Vinayak Bhoir, Prasad Patil, Kalpesh Sawant, Royston Dias, Gaurav Chavan, Bharat Patil, Mohit Avasthi, Puneet Tripathi, Shivam Nirupam, Umesh Gurjar, Yash Dicholkar, Siddhant Adhatrao, Vaibhav Singh
Eagle Thane Strikers: Kaushik Chikhalikar, Sachin Wagh, Aditya Tare(w/c), Sarfaraz Khan, Sagar Mishra, Alpesh Ramjani, Aishwary Surve, Ankush Jaiswal, Siddhant Singh, Prashant Bhoir, Kruthik Hanagavadi, Ajinkya Beloshe, Jaideep Pardeshi, Shrikant Limbole, Asif Shaikh, Mayur Sanap, Rakesh Prabhu, Balwinder Sandhu, Shardul Thakur
The second match of the day will feature table-toppers SoBo SuperSonics taking on Aakash Tigers MWS. The Tigers are fifth in the table with two points from as many games.
While the SuperSonics have won both their matches quite convincingly, the Tigers are coming into this match on the back of a loss to Eagle Thane Strikers and they will be looking to get their campaign back on track. Parag Khanapurkar, who scored 96 against ARCS Andheri on Day 1 of the tournament, is the leading run scorer for SuperSonics with 111 runs in two innings at an average of 55.5 and a strike rate of 172. Aakarshit Gomel is the Tigers' leading run scorer with 79 runs from two games.
Deepak Shetty and Rohan Raje have picked up four and three wickets, respectively, for SuperSonics while Anjdeep Lad, with two wickets, has picked the most wickets for the Tigers. Both teams are likely to be unchanged for this game.
Teams:
SoBo SuperSonics (From): Jay Gokul Bista(c), Hersh Tank, Parag Khanapurkar, Mansingh Nigade, Yogesh Takawale(w), Adeeb Usmani, Rohan Raje, Vaibhav Mali, Dhrumil Matkar, Deepak Shetty, Badrey Alam, Khizer Dafedar, Harsh Tanna, Akshay Barma, Aatif Shaikh, Shashank Attarde, Sandeep Kunchikor, Tushar Srivastav, Japjeet Randhawa, Agni Chopra
Aakash Tigers MWS (From): Kaustubh Pawar, Aakarshit Gomel, Arjun Tendulkar, Siddharth Akre, D Subramanian(w), Dhawal Kulkarni(c), Shams Mulani, Yogesh Pawar, Nehal Katakdhond, Minad Manjrekar, Anjdeep Lad, Bhavin Thakkar, Ajay Pandey, Suryansh Shedge, Akash Anand, Mehboob Shaikh, Sylvester Dsouza
Catch the T20 Mumbai action live on Star Sports 2/2HD/3 at 7:30 PM, and on Hotstar.