Shreyas Iyer's 51-ball 86 run blitzkrieg helped Mumbai sail past a tall Vidarbha total to notch up a five-wicket win in the Super League phase of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Group A cricket match here today.
Chasing Vidarbha's score of 181 for four, built mainly around opener Jignesh Sharma's punishing knock of 56 off just 30 balls, Mumbai cantered home in 18.5 overs to register their second straight victory in as many days in the tournament, at the Wankhede Stadium.
Iyer and skipper Aditya Tare (41 in 24 balls) steadied the Mumbai innings after the early loss of left-handed opener Akhil Herwadkar (4) through a brisk second-wicket partnership of 71 runs in 7.2 overs.
After Tare fell, Iyer combined forces with Sidhesh Lad to take the score to 162.
Though the hosts lost these two batsmen as well as Abhishek Nayar in quick succession to be on 164 for five, Shashank Singh (14 not out) and the experienced Suryakumar Yadav (4 not out) guided the side past the finish line with seven balls to spare.
Earlier put into bat, Sharma hit two sixes and four fours to revive Vidarbha, who had lost to Baroda yesterday and are out of reckoning for a place in the final on January 20, in the company of Ganesh Satish (25) after Dhawal Kulkarni had fired out consistent opener Faiz Fazal (0) with his second ball.
The second wicket partners put on a breezy stand of 68 runs before Satish departed.
Medium-pacer Sagar Trivedi got rid of both Sharma and Ravi Janghid before Apoorva Wankhede (36) and Urvesh Patel (31) helped Vidarbha past the 180 mark with an unconquered fifth wicket stand worth 79 runs.
But the total proved inadequate against Iyer's assault.
Brief scores: Vidarbha 181/4 in 20 overs (Jitesh Sharma 56, Akhil Wankhede not out 36, U Patel not out 31; S Trivedi 2 for 44) lost to Mumbai 182/5 in 18.5 overs (Shreyas Iyer 86, Aditya Tare 41; Ravi Thakur 2-32).
Points: Mumbai 4, Vidarbha 0.
