Kerala Strikers suffered their third defeat in the Celebrity Cricket League. They lost to Mumbai Heroes by 7 runs. Kerala needed only 12 runs in the last over. But Jean Lal and Prashant Alexander who faced the last over could score only five runs. At the same time, Kerala tasted its third defeat in the CCL as they were unable to pass the strike to Arjun Nandakumar, who was in good form. Kerala Strikers have been eliminated from the Celebrity Cricket League with their third consecutive defeat.
The target of Kerala Strikers against Mumbai was 113 runs. Siddharth Menon, Vivek Gopan, and Arjun Nandakumar batted well. Though Vivek Gopan did not repeat his fantastic form of the first innings, he still took 17 runs off 14 balls. It was Arjun Nandakumar who scored 38 off 19 balls for Kerala. He remained not out. Mumbai star Sharad Kelkar was declared Man of the Match. Mumbai captain Riteish Deshmukh was the best bowler and Vivek Gopan was declared the best batsman.
Earlier, the Bollywood stars went into bat in the second spell with a lead of nine runs. Mumbai scored 103 runs for the loss of five wickets in the second spell against Kerala Strikers. Madhav and Apoorva opened for Mumbai Heroes. Kerala got Mumbai's first wicket with just three runs on the scoreboard. Apoorva, who scored just one run, was dismissed by Saiju Kurup in the last ball of the first over. The next wicket fell on the first ball of the sixth over. Vivek Gopan took a catch on his own ball after another opener Madhav scored 17 runs.
It was Lal Jr. in the eighth over who stopped Mumbai from rushing toward a big score. In the first ball of the eighth over, Saqib Salim was dismissed by Jean-Paul Lal aka Lal Jr. on his own ball. Lal Jr took the wicket of Shabbir Ahluwalia on the fourth ball of the same over. Saqib Saleem scored 12 runs and Shabbir scored one. Jean Sameer Kochhar, who bowled the last over, also took the wicket.
Chasing 116 runs in the first spell of Mumbai Heroes, Kerala Strikers scored 107 runs for 5 wickets in the first spell. After a massive collapse, it was Vivek Gopan's swashbuckling innings after 5 overs that took Kerala to a respectable score against Mumbai.
Vivek Gopan scored 63 runs off 24 balls. It included 7 sixes and 1 four. Kerala was saved by the fifth-wicket partnership between Saiju Kurup and Vivek Gopan. Saiju Kurup scored 19 runs off 18 balls. Apart from them, no one crossed the double digits in Kerala. Captain Riteish Deshmukh took 3 wickets for Mumbai. Riteish conceded only 9 runs in two overs.
Mumbai Heroes scores 116 runs in the first spell against Kerala Strikers. After winning the toss, the Mumbai players scored 116 runs in the first 10 overs at the loss of seven wickets. Saqib Saleem, the opener of Mumbai Heroes, shone in the batting line-up. Anthony Varghese, who made his debut for the Kerala team in the season in Celebrity Cricket, took two wickets.
