Pune: The rain prevailed. Ratnagiri Jets were declared the winners of the Shriram Capital Maharashtra Premier League (MPL) on Friday afternoon by virtue of being table toppers in the league phase.
Ratnagiri and Kolhapur both finished on 8 points, but Ratnagiri finished on top with a net run rate of +0.630 compared to +0.568 of Kolhapur.
When the rain halted the play, Kolhapur Tuskers were 80 for 8 after 16 overs of play, which was the last bit of action.
Ratnagiri walked away with the championship trophy and ₹50 lakh as the prize. Kolhapur were given the trophy and ₹25 lakh.
Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) president Rohit Pawar congratulated all the teams, their owners and thanked the fans for their support.
Present at the prize distribution ceremony were MCA vice president Kiran Samant, MPL chairman Sacheen Mulay, secretary Shubhendra Bhandarkar, joint Secretary Santosh Bobade, Treasurer Sanjay Bajaj, Janhavi Dhariwal-Balan and Ratnagiri Jets’ owners – Rakesh and Rajan Navani.
Other members of the MCA apex council – Suhas Patwardhan, Sunil Mutha, Vinayak Dravid, Keshav Vaze, Raju Kane, Adv. Ajay Deshmukh, Rajvardhan Kadambande, Atul Jain, Adv. Kamlesh Pisal, Sushil Shewale, Ranjit Khirid, and Kalpna Tapikar – were also present for the prize distribution ceremony of the tournament.
Due to persistent rain, the final had to be moved to the reserve day of Friday. On Friday, the game started at the scheduled 11am, with Ratnagiri option to bowl first, but the rain interruptions disrupted the momentum of play.
The first interruption came at the end of the seventh over, when Kolhapur were 43 for 2. Left-arm spinner Kunal Thorat had removed the tournament’s orange cap holder Ankit Bawne (1 off 3) and Sahil Autade (5 off 7).
When the play resumed, veteran keeper Nikhil Naik took a blinder to dismiss Naushad Shaikh (12 off 15) off Pradeep Dadhe’s bowling. Siddhart Mhatre (0 off 1) followed him in next, before another rain interruption.
After the rain break, tennis-ball sensation Vijay Pawle dismissed opposition skipper Kedar Jadhav 32 (28b, 2x4s, 2x6s), who dragged one onto stumps, to leave Kolhapur tottering at 59 for 6.
At the end of 16th over, Kolhapur were 80 for 8, when rain stopped the play again. After that interruption, the game never got going again and around 4pm Ratnagiri were declared the winner.
