Mumbai Champs get on the scoreboard

The battle between the bottom two teams in the tournament ended with Mumbai Champs completing a 58-run victory against the Delhi Giants in Gurgaon. It was Mumbai's first victory in the league, after five defeats, and it came soon after their coach Sandeep Patil had stepped down.

Mumbai's batting clicked after they were put into bat and substantial contributions from Dheeraj Jadhav, Hasan Raza and Ranjit Khirid helped them to a competitive 174. Their bowlers put up a strong defence and Avinash Yadav's terrific spell of 4 for 18 crippled Delhi's chase. The home team was dismissed for 116 in the 17.3 overs.

Jadhav laid the platform for Mumbai's total, after they had lost two wickets for 44 runs, with a solid half-century. He found the boundary in each of the first five overs - thrice behind square leg, once over extra cover and over mid-on - but ensured he did not fritter a start. He settled down after Taufeeq Umar was bowled by Abid Nabi and added 72 for the third wicket with Hasan Raza. Jadhav eventually fell for 59, lofting Ali Murtaza to Shane Bond at long-off.

The crucial push to the innings came from Raza and Ranjit Khirid, who scored 43 each in quick time. Raza got going by hitting Jai P Yadav over the midwicket boundary and was lucky to survive a dropped catch on the cover boundary when on 15. He favoured the leg side, smashing Shalabh Srivastava for a six over midwicket and a four towards fine leg in the 12th over.

Khirid was on 14 when Raza holed out to long-on in the 18th over and he stepped up and took charge. He lifted Nabi for a massive six over the sight-screen and then deposited Srivastava over the boundaries at cover and square leg in the penultimate over to end the innings with a flourish.

Delhi's chase was shaken, after a brisk beginning, when Monish Mishra top-edged to short fine leg and Marvan Atapattu was caught behind off Anupam Sanklecha, leaving them on 36 for 2. S Abbas Ali was trying to build momentum when a flurry of wickets permanently derailed the innings.

Dhruv Mahajan was bowled off an inside edge by Khirid with the score on 71 and in the next over - the 11th - Abbas became the first of Yadav's four wickets. Yadav wrecked the lower-middle order, having Abhinav Bali caught at sweeper and Paul Nixon at cover. In between those dismissals Delhi lost Jai P Yadav and Nabi to run-outs and, at 103 for 8, the contest was over.