Mumbai T20 League: NaMo Bandra Blasters score a one-sided victory over ARCS Andheri

NaMo Bandra Blasters scored a one-sided victory over ARCS Andheri to make it two wins out of two games in the T20 Mumbai League on Tuesday night at the Wankhede Stadium here.

An outstanding bowling performance enabled the Blasters skittle out ARCS for 107, and the Shreyas Iyer-led unit chased down the small target with a minimum fuss. Iyer led the chase from the front with a 53-run knock. His 98-run unbroken partnership with Nikhil Patil made sure that the Blasters chased down the target without any trouble after losing an early wicket.

Iyer found gaps in the field effortlessly to score his second half-century in two games (53 not out off 35 balls, five fours, two sixes). At the other end, Patil batted sensibly and made full use of anything loose that was on offer to finish unbeaten on 39 with the help of four fours and a six.

The duo saw Blasters home with 40 balls and nine wickets to spare, giving a good lift to their net run-rate.

It was a terrific effort as a bowling unit from Blasters to bowl out an opposition for 107 on a track that is considered good for batting. Experienced leg-spinner Pravin Tambe made life difficult for the ARCS with his variations. The ARCS struggled to pick Tambe off his hand, and struggled to get even singles against his bowling. Tambe gave away just eight runs from his four overs, picking up three important wickets.

Barring the 35-run opening stand between Subramnian Doraiswamy and Akhil Herwadkar, there was no notable partnership for the ARCS. Dorayswamy and Siddharth Chitnis were the only ARCS’ batsmen to get past 20.

The Blasters conceded only eight fours and two sixes in 19 overs, such was their control. Aishwarya Surve and Azhar Ansari chipped in with two wickets each to support Tambe, while off-spinner Aniket Redkar was at his accurate best, giving away just nine runs from his three overs and taking the wicket of Herwadkar.

ARCS definitely missed the services of their all-rounder Shubham Ranjane, Man-of-the-Match in their opening win, due to injury.

Brief scores: ARCS Andheri 107 all out in 19 overs (Subramnian Doraiswamy 22, Siddharth Chitnis 21, Pravin Tambe 3-8, Azhar Ansari 2-25, Aishwarya Surve 2-26) lost to NaMo Bandra Blasters 108 for 1 in 13.2 overs (Shreyas Iyer 53 not out, Nikhil Patil 39 not out) by nine wickets.