Thanks to the explosive innings of Manan Sharma and the strong contribution of captain Irfan Pathan, Mumbai Marines has become the first champion of the Big Cricket League. In the final of the first season of the league, Mumbai defeated Southern Spartans by 7 wickets in a thrilling match. In the league final played in Surat on Sunday 22nd December, Spartans batted first and scored a tremendous score of 210 runs. In response, on the basis of Manan's 89-run innings and excellent partnership with captain Irfan, Mumbai scored 213 runs in the last over and won the title along with the match.
Retired international players and some former first class cricketers along with aspiring players got a chance to play in this league. In such a situation, this league was very special and the eyes of the fans were also on it. While former international players like Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Shikhar Dhawan, Solomon Mir showed their mettle, first class and aspiring cricketers like Saket Sharma, Sandeep Kumar, Jason Kariya also impressed with their performance.
A similar strong performance was seen in the final also, where Southern Spartans batted first. This team, captained by Suresh Raina, despite losing the first wicket early, did explosive batting and captain Raina himself played a big role in it. Raina made an explosive partnership of 119 runs with former England opener Phil Mustard. During this, Raina scored 51 runs in just 26 balls by hitting 9 fours and 1 six. Whereas Mustard scored 78 runs in just 39 balls, which included 10 fours and 4 sixes. Apart from these, Faiz Fazal also scored 30 runs quickly. Manpreet Gony took 2 wickets for Mumbai Marines.
In reply, Mumbai lost the wickets of both the openers for only 35 runs but Jessel Karia, who has been batting well this season, took the lead and put the team in a good position. He along with Manan Sharma (89 not out) made an excellent partnership of 93 runs for the third wicket. Kariya was out after scoring 75 runs in 39 balls. After this, captain Irfan (27 not out) came and supported Manan Sharma and both of them did not let any wicket fall again. Manan and Irfan made an unbeaten partnership of 78 runs and helped the team win by 7 wickets.
