Opener Praful Meher ‘s half-century (57, 36b, 5×4, 3×6) and brilliant spells from medium pacers Vikrant Deshpande (4-0-27-3) and Shailesh Harbade (2-46) enabled  Ambedkar XI to record a close 10-run victory over Boutkar & Raja XI in the final of Masters Cup T20 tournament on Sunday.
The match was heading for an interesting finish when Boutkar & Raja XI needed 31 in 16 balls with seven wickets in hand while chasing Ambedkar XI’s 191 in 20 overs.
Deshpande bowled a brilliant 19th overs and picked up three important wickets to seal the fate as Boutkar & Raja XI were restricted to 181 for nine wickets in their 20 overs. This after Harbade had sent back openers Syed Foorqan Rizvi and Vikran Batra in his first two overs.
Abhishek Naidu (63, 45b, 9×4), Mohit Reddy (33, 26b, 5×4, 1×6) and Prashant Tagade (40, 29b, 4×4, 1×6) kept them in hunt. Naidu had 73-run third-wicket stand with Reddy and 68-run fourth-wicket partnership with Tagade.
Earlier, top-order comprises Meher, Amit Deshpande (33, 25b, 3×4, 1×6) Mangesh Samdurkar (27, 11b, 1×4, 3×6) and Sudhir Wankhede (29, 19b, 3×4, 1×6) helped Ambedkar XI reach a competitive total. Deshpande’s unbeaten 11-ball 16 down the order also proved useful for Ambedkar XI.
BRIEF SCORES
Ambedkar XI 191 in 20 overs (Praful Meher 57, Amit Deshpande 33, Sudhir Wankhede 29, Mangesh Samdurkar 27; Prashant Tagade 3-18, Lokesh Chikhale 3-38, Syed Foorqab Rizvi 2-50) beat Boutkar & Raja XI 181-9 in 20 overs (Abhishek Naidu 63, Prashant Tagade 40, Mohit Reddy 33; Vikrant Deshpande 3-27, Sudhir Wankhede 2-32, Shailesh Harbade 2-46, Yogesh Chandurkar & Roshan Agarwal one wicket each) by 10 wickets.
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