Mangaluru: Curtains close on Mangalore Premier League 2016 as the year ends and new champions of the tournament have won the finals. Team Coastal Digest beat Maestro Titans by six wickets at the final match of MPL 2016 held on Friday, 30 December.
Amidst a crowd of thousands, a tough battle was fought by the Titans against Coastal Digest in both the innings. Titans won the toss and opted to bat the first innings but after the loss of team skipper Akshay’s wicket, the batsmen could get the score up to 119 at the end of 17 overs. Team CD curtailed the run rate of Maestro Titans owing to their effective fielding over the course of the game and also the wicket count gave them an edge.
In the first innings, Maestro Titans did give their best as the batsmen scored with a combined effort of all. After scoring half centuries in almost every other match in the tournament, Akshay Ballal missed the half century this time by 9 runs as his smash for a boundary was caught. Though the Titans struggled a bit to reach the score they set, several batsmen who followed Akshay into the field did their bit for the score considering the hurdles of fielding and bowling by Team CD.
In the second innings however, the Titans had to compensate the low target score with tough fielding and that they did. The Titans made sure that throughout the game, it was hard for Team CD to score some boundaries let alone sixers. In the fifth over bowled by Akshay, Team CD took a blow by losing two wickets in the same over but did not lose any after that. At the end of the 18th over, Team CD won the match with a concluding sixer and reached a total score of 124 with a loss of three wickets.
All in all, a splendid performance by both the teams was seen at MPL 2016 finals. An added attraction to the audience gathered were fireworks and sky lanterns which lit up the night sky.
Farewell to MPL 2016
After the celebration and fireworks following the victory of Team CD, a formal award ceremony was convened to honour the champions, runners-up and special award winners of the tournament. As the various sponsors and well-wishers of MPL 2016 gathered at the ceremony, the ‘Man of the Series’, ‘Man of the Match’, ‘Fairplay’ award, ‘Orange Cap’ for highest wickets earnt and ‘Purple Cap’ for highest runs scored were announced and distributed.
Scoring a total of 455 runs, earning 16 wickets and winning ‘Man of the Match’ title four times in the tournament, Maestro Titans captain Akshay Ballal won the Orange Cap, Purple Cap, cash awards and a Chevrolet Beat for winning the ‘Man of the Series’ title. Apart from the team trophies, MPL 2016 mementoes were handed over by the organizers to each player of both the winning and runners up teams.
The ‘Man of the Match’ title for this final match was awarded to Rithesh Bhatkal which fetched him a hefty cash award apart from the appreciation from both the teams. Curtains closed on Mangalore Premier League 2016 with fans clicking selfies with their favourite players and getting their autographs while they were at it.
