T20 Mumbai League: Suryakumar shines as Triumph Knights beat Maratha Royals

Suryakumar Yadav during his 72 not out. Pic/Ashish Raje

Every time medium-pacer Sylvester D'Souza picks up a wicket, he points skywards and also his back to jersey No. 18. No, not to show he is the Virat Kohli of Triumph Knights Mumbai North East (TKMNE) but, "It's just that the universe is going to take care and I'm here," in his words.

On Monday, the 27-year-old D'Souza produced the best-ever bowling figures in T20 Mumbai League to shine in Triumph Knights Mumbai North East's (TKMNE) first win after three defeats. He took 5-21 in 3.5 overs to bowl out defending champions Mumbai South Central Maratha Royals (MSCMR) for 152 at Wankhede.

TKMNE met the target in 16 overs to win by six wickets, courtesy captain Suryakumar Yadav's unbeaten 72 off 36 balls (13x4, 1x6). In a fine gesture, Suryakumar gave his Player of the Match award to D'Souza.

The right-arm bowler from Palghar said: "Surya is very kind. For the batting show that he put up for us to get that win, the Man of the Match award was supposed to go to him. But he was kind enough to dedicate it to me and I am grateful to him. And, I dedicate the award to my family. My parents have worked hard their whole lives and put in all those efforts for me."

D'Souza made scoring difficult for the top-order with the new ball. He dismissed MSCMR opener Sahil Jadhav, who flicked straight to deep square-leg Vedant Gurav in the third over. D'Souza returned in the death overs, picking up four wickets to record the fifth five-wicket haul in TML history and the first this year.

In between, the TKMNE spinners Hitesh Kadam, Sagar Mishra and Parikshit Valsangkar bowled tight lines and picked up wickets regularly to leave MSCMR struggling at 78-5 in 10 overs. The sixth wicket duo of Chinmay Sutar (32) and Maxwell Swaminathan (36) shared 64 before the former was retired out.

Chasing 153, TKMNE lost openers Vedant Murkar and Akhil Herwadkar early for rash shots before Suryakumar and Nutan Goel (56 off 42 balls; 4x4, 3x6) made it a comfortable chase, sharing 103 for the third wicket.

Suryakumar's knock came a shade too late. After falling for 19 and 4 in the first two matches, he scored 48 on the day he was axed as India's T20 captain two days ago. When almost everything was lost, Suryakumar sent a reminder that he still had it in him, playing his trademark strokes all around the wicket.