At the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai, Axar (50: 29b, 4x4, 2x6) came in to bat when his side was struggling at 66 for four in their chase of Air India's 172-4.
The 22-year-old added 75 runs for the fifth wicket with Yogesh Nagar (32) as Reliance 1 eked out a four-wicket win with one ball to spare.
Earlier, Paul Valthaty (81: 58b, 5x4, 5x6) starred for Air India as they posted a challenging 172-4 in their 20 overs.
Brief scores:
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Group A: At DY Patil Stadium: Air India 172-4 in 20 overs (Paul Valthaty 81, Prashant Naik 41; Baltej Singh 2-33) lost to Reliance 1 177-6 in 19.5 overs (Axar Patel 50, Yogesh Nagar 32, Apoorv Wankhede 25 n.O.; Raunaq Sharma 3-31) by four wickets
Group C: At University Ground: Central Railway 146-8 in 20 overs (Sanjog Binkar 26 n.O., Harshad Rawle 22, Amit Paunikar 22; Rakesh Prabhu 3-31, Samad Fallah 2-44) lost to Jain Irrigation 147-3 in 18.5 overs (Faiz Fazal 47, Jay Bista 33, Mansingh Nigde 25 n.O.)-by seven wickets
Group B: At University Ground: Tata Sports Club 191-5 in 20 overs (Ian Dev Chouhan 50, Hridayesh Pawar 48 n.O., Sujit Nayak 45; tied with State Bank of Hyderabad 191-9 in 20 overs (T Suman 56, S Anoop Pai 44, Denay Devi Prince 34; Aditya Dhumal 3-29, Wilkin Mota 3-31).