Sharjah: Mumbai Heroes were at their aggressive best on Saturday as they demolished defending champions Chennai Rhinos at the Celebrity Cricket League 2012. Held at a packed Sharjah Cricket Stadium, the Sunil Shetty-led team won by 23 runs.
“I smelt victory right from the start and today I felt that cricket was a team game. Last season, we came as pure celebs, but this season we left acting behind and played a good game,” said Shetty at the presentation ceremony. The presence of matinee idol Salman Khan and his watchful eye on the boys also helped.
“This is the first time we have won here. We are taking revenge this year for last year. Boys mein josh tha [boys had that drive],” said a triumphant Khan as he was presented a special memorabilia -- a bat signed by the Pakistan team that played the 200th ODI at Sharjah against Sri Lanka in November last year.
Like a typical Bollywood potboiler, the match on Saturday was high on emotions and drama. Cheerleaders and their starry supporters charged onto the field to hug the winning team members.
“The boys did amazing well. Today, we are going to party hard,” said a jubilant Sohail Khan to the television crew at the end of the game. The Man Of The Match was awarded to Raja for his impressive knock. He made a quick 52 runs.
“Initially the ball was not coming to the bat, but we played as per weather conditions,” said Raja.
Aftab Shivdasani – with his questionable fielding on Friday – was in top form the next day and more than made up for his fielding errors. He made 26 runs and was instrumental in putting up a total of 148 runs on the board for Chennai Rhinos to chase. In all, Sharjah has proved to be a lucky ground for Mumbai Heroes.
