Mumbai bounced back after suffering a defeat in their opening game when they thrashed Gujarat by six wickets with 9 balls to spare in the West Zone T20 league game at the MCA's BKC ground here today.
The hosts, who were beaten by Baroda last evening at the Wankhede Stadium, outclassed Gujarat with some tidy bowling and batting effort on a bouncy, but slow pitch.
Inserting Gujarat in after winning the toss, the Mumbai bowlers - led by captain Zaheer Khan - restricted their rivals to a paltry score of 126 for 9 and then rode on wicket keeper and opener Aditya Tare's attacking knock of 55 off 46 balls to emerge easy winners.
Zaheer dismissed rival captain Parthiv Patel off the fifth ball of the match and Gujarat, who suffered their first defeat in two games after having beaten Maharashtra in the opener, struggled thereafter to pile on a challenging total.
The other experienced batsman in the Gujarat line up, Venugopal Rao was run out for 6 and Gujarat's weak batting was thoroughly exposed.
Barring a 47-run partnership between opener Rajdeep Darbar and one-down Rujul Bhatt, who both scored 31, there were no worthwhile batting exploits from Gujarat.
Zaheer took two for 14 while fellow-medium-pacer Prathamesh Dhake, leg spinner Pravin Thambe and part-time bowler Suryakumar Yadav also grabbed two wickets apiece.
Mumbai's chase started briskly as openers Kevin Almeida (32 in 32 balls) and Tare, who struck 3 sixes and 4 fours, put on 57 in the first ten overs.
Though the home team lost Almeida, Sushant Marathe and Abhishek Nayar, Tare kept one end up before falling when his team was five short of victory.
Shreyas Iyer stepped out and carted Mehul Pael over mid wicket for a six to end the match.
Brief scores: Gujarat 126 for 9 (Rajdeep Darbar 31, Rujul Bhatt 31; Zaheer Khan 2 for 14, P Dhake 2 for 28, P Tambe 2 fo 23, S Yadav 2 for 11).
