In a battle of nerves, the Raigad Royals kept their wits about them to defeat the Pratapgad Warriors by six wickets in the finals of the Maharashtra Premier League played at the Deccan Gymkhana here on Thursday.

Pratapgad, batting first, put up a total of 121, which was never going to be enough against the batting firepower of the Royals. The Pratapgad openers, Shailesh Bhosale and Pankaj Kalyankar were dismissed for 16 and 13 respectively. Bhosale perished to a beauty delivered by Raigad skipper Harshad Khadiwale, which was cleanly taken by Rohit Motwani behind the stumps.

After this, Swapnil Gugale played a sedate knock of 35, which put the innings back on track to an extent. He was supported at the other end by Satyajit Satbhai who made 20 off 23 deliveries. The duo dug their heels in, rotating the strike, and punishing the odd loose ball, which to Raigad’s credit, were few and far between. Gugale was dismissed in the 15th over going for a big hit off Sunil Patel, which was taken by Bhosale in the deep. In the very next over, Satbhai was back in the pavilion, after mistiming a N Salekar delivery.

The rest of the Pratapgad batsmen tried to up the ante in the last few overs, but could not get the boundaries that were so sorely needed at that stage.Among the Pratapgad bowlers, N Salekar took three wickets, skipper Harshad Khadiwale took two, and S Patel one. Khadiwale was the pick of the bowlers, having given just 19 off his four overs.

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