6:20 PM IST, Local Time: The North Mumbai Panthers kick start their campaign with a 21-run win over Triumph Knights at the Wankhede Stadium in a marathon game that lasted almost four and a half hours with the Ajinkya Rahane-led side taking the contest in the final over.
Triumph Knights won the toss and elected to bowl first under the leadership of the Indian skipper Suryakumar Yadav. Panthers opener Hardik Tamore top scored with 67 off 43 balls with 9 fours and 2 sixes, Ayush Vartak hit 39 off 21 and Tanush Kotian finished with an unbeaten 30 off 15 to take the total to 209/5. Sylvester D'Souza was the pick of the bowlers with 2/23.
The Knights lost the openers inside the first 3 overs. Impact player Nutan Goel and Suryakumar Yadav added 37 runs for the 3rd wicket. Skipper Yadav hit 19 off 11 balls with 4 fours but holed out in the deep against Rahul Sawant. Goel added 55 runs for the 5th wicket with Harshal Jadhav and moved past his half century and was run out in the final over for 93 off 56 balls with 9 fours and 5 sixes but didn't find able support at the other end.
Mohit Avasthi (2/32), Rahul Sawant (2/34) and Harsh Tanna (2/44) picked up a couple of wickets apiece, Vaibhav Mali picked up 1/41, Pratik Mishra was wicketless but conceded only 28 runs with Tanush Kotian bowling just a solitary over for 9 runs. Stay tuned for the post match coverage.