A complete all-round season for Reliance 1, with practically every player stepping up at different stages of the tournament and performing just when it mattered, has culminated in the team clinching the title on Sunday (February 25), at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai in the 17^th DY Patil T20 Cup.

Although the campaign didn’t get off to a winning start, the comeback was impressive. The team went on a winning roll over the next week, winning the next five games in a row.

It was Vishnu Vinod who set the template for things to come in the first game itself against Indian Navy. Although the team lost by eight wickets, there were plenty of positives to take home. Arshad Khan and the spin duo of Piyush Chawla and Kumar Kartikeya then brought the team back on track, derailing the Central Railway batting in their second game, before the batters, led by Hrithik Shokeen breezed through the chase.

Tilak Verma (58 off 31) and Nehal Wadhra (71 off 36) stepped up in the next game against Jain Irrigation, followed by Luvnith Sisodia’s blitz (71 off 35) at the top of the order against BPCL in the quarter-finals. In the semis, DY Patil A’s target of 163 was quite easily chased down with three wickets and five balls to spare, thanks to the lower middle-order going on a rampage.

And the final was a proper thriller. Although Shokeen was once again impressive with a fifty, Reliance 1 ended up with nothing more than just a par score of 153, getting bowled out inside their 20 overs. But all the bowlers were absolutely clinical, constantly keeping up the pressure all through the innings. Akash Madhwal was entrusted with the final over. He had six runs to defend.

Baltej Singh took a single off the first ball, his partner, Jayesh Pokhare, smashed a boundary off the next. The equation suddenly was down to two runs off four balls. The match was well and truly in DY Patil’s court.

What followed was proper magic. Two dots, two wickets, and Madhwal had carried Reliance 1 to the trophy, winning by the skin of their teeth, by one run.

A number of these players are a part of our Mumbai Indians setup for 2023, and trust them to come into the season super high on confidence!