13 June,2026 09:14 AM IST | Mumbai | G Krishnan
Tushar Deshpande. Pic/AFP
Tushar Deshpande has been a vital cog in defending champions Mumbai South Central Maratha Royals's (MSCMR) campaign in the fourth edition of T20 Mumbai League.
The 31-year-old all-rounder will need to do it one last time in this edition on Sunday night when his team takes on Shivam Dube's Arcs Andheri (AA) in the T20 Mumbai League men's final.
Deshpande batting anywhere between Nos. 5 and 9 shows the depth of the Siddhesh Lad-led MSCMR. Deshpande's ability to hit sixes are game changers akin to Dube's for AA.
After smashing 55 not out with six sixes at No. 9 against Bandra Blasters last week, Deshpande said the highest he'd like to bat was "open". "I opened the batting for my school, but not afterwards," he said. Not surprisingly, Deshpande's strike rate is 205.26, second to Aakash Tigers' skipper Sarfaraz Khan (214.67) in this edition.
For MSCMR to do a la Royal Challengers Bengaluru, i.e. retain the T20 title, Deshpande holds all the aces.
AA will rely on the muscular Dube to hit sixes at will to finish things off once their top-order comprising left-handed explosive Divyaansh Saxena and Musheer Khan lay a solid platform. Dube's six-hitting abilities and the unknown commodity of Ashutosh Ghagre mixing his spinners in the semifinal took AA to the final. Whether they can do it one more time against a well-balanced MSCMR, only time will tell.
Meanwhile, the inaugural women's final between SoBo Mumbai Falcons (SMF), led by India quick bowler Sayali Satghare, and the Humairaa Kaazi-led Aakash Tigers Mumbai Western Suburbs (ATMWS) is well matched too.
In the three-team league phase also involving Thane Sky Risers, SMF won three of the four matches to finish atop the points table while ATMWS finished second with two.
Kaazi was upbeat the final despite her team having lost bot their league matches to SMF: "It feels great to have reached the final. It's been a total team performance. Looking forward to a good game in the final."
Satghare said: "The best thing about our team is that everyone has contributed. We won three and had different player of the match award winners. We're not dependent on one or two individuals. That's a good sign going into the final."
