Guwahati: A big upset was caused on Friday in the Paytm Mushtaq Ali T20 match when Meghalaya beat Mumbai at their home ground at the Wankhede Stadium. This is Mumbai's first loss in the tournament this season.
As per reports, Ravi Teja gently flicked Mumbai’s pacer Dhawal Kulkarni for a four to help Meghalaya beat Mumbai by six wickets in a league match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy and pull off a huge upset.
Mumbai were restricted to 157 for 6 at the Wankhede Stadium and Meghalaya riding on Teja’s unbeaten 61 and Sanjay Yadav’s 55 overhauled the target with just four balls to spare.
Both the batsman Teja and Yadav are professional players who are turning out for the team from the north-east, which has been playing at this level for just two years.
Mumbai had got off to a good start with openers Jay Bista and Aditya Tare adding 73 runs for the first wicket. But medium-pacer Swarajeet Das (2/31) dismissing both the openers in the ninth over.
On the other hand, Shreyas Iyer (15), skipper Suryakumar Yadav (28) and Siddhesh Lad (22) didn’t really cut loose and gave Meghalaya a fighting chance at the break. It was a battle between the haves and the have nots as Meghalaya does not travel with a video analyst, a position which modern teams don’t leave vacant. Teja had moved from Andhra to Meghalaya. He has also played for Hyderabad earlier and also for the Under-19s.
“It means a lot as Meghalaya is an upcoming team. Playing against Mumbai itself is a dream for players from Meghalaya and beating them is the ultimate win. They are learning with every game. We don’t have proper grounds back home and there are no quality practice pitches, so we practice in Assam,” Teja said.
“This win will certainly give a big boost to Meghalaya cricket. We are football-loving people. It’s a dream,” team manager and Meghalaya Cricket Association joint secretary Chiang-D-Shira said.
Earlier, a day ahead, Madhya Pradesh had beaten Meghalaya by 244 runs so the turnaround was commendable and something Mumbai perhaps did not expect.
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