Hrithik Shokeen shines as Reliance 1 clinch DY Patil T20 title

Player-of-the-match Hrithik Shokeen at the DY Patil Stadium on Saturday. Pic/Karan Shankar

Right-arm pacer Akash Madhwal's 3-24 and left-arm spinner Kumar Kartikeya's 2-27 helped Reliance 1 snatch a one-run victory over DY Patil Group ‘B' in a nail-biting final of the DY Patil T20 Cup at the DY Patil Stadium on Saturday.

Chasing 154, opener Hardik Tamore (43 off 34) gave DY Patil a healthy start followed by a cameo from Dinesh Karthik (27 off 17). Karthik fell to Kartikeya in the 15th over and it eventually boiled down to needing seven runs for victory off the final over. Madhwal, however, did brilliantly in last over, giving away just six runs. Despite conceding a boundary off the second ball, he picked up the final wicket off the last ball to seal the fate of the encounter.

Earlier, put into bat, Reliance 1 lost a couple of wickets early before right-hander Hrithik Shokeen (53 off 34) and left-handed opener Rohit Rayudu (43 off 35) brought them back into the game with a 60-run partnership. It went downhill thereafter though as right-arm pacer Vineet Sinha (3-40) dismissed Shokeen. Fellow right-arm pacer Baltej Singh (4-15) got into the act too as Reliance lost their last six wickets for just 17 runs. Man-of-the-match Shokeen later told mid-day that he felt the total was not enough. "But we bowled brilliantly at the death to win it," he said.

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