Race to the
Super 7

Rebels won the toss and invited Mandalorians to bat, then Nikhil Obili’s first over immediately found every corner of the tennis-ball map: sixteen runs, including four boundaries. UV Yadav made the invitation look generous, launching 23 off 19 with a six before the early fireworks faded 🏆. Shiva Perumalsamy and Aditya Gulkotwar followed with tidy spells, while Anirban Das struck in the middle overs as Mandalorians’ bright start began collecting dents.

The squeeze became a proper group project 🔨. Chinmay K arrived in the eighth over and hit the brakes hard, finishing with 3/15, while Aditya Gulkotwar added 2/14; Vinod Yadav and Anirban Das kept the pressure moving from one end to the other. Wickets came in little clusters, and suddenly the innings had gone from breezy to mildly argumentative. Arpit Sanghavi and Madhan Reddy were asked to rebuild, with Arpit adding a useful 13 off 16 before his second spell ended and Madhan eventually taking the baton home.

That baton was wearing oven mitts and carrying a hammer 🔨. Madhan Reddy’s late surge produced 35 off 28, including three boundaries, as Mandalorians found ten in each of overs 16 and 17. Ankur Sah contributed a six before falling; Prashant Sinha and Sohail Mohammed offered resistance in overs 9–14. Nikhil Obili, Shiva Perumalsamy and the returning attack kept the innings from becoming a free-for-all. Mandalorians closed on 125/11, a score built in patches but finished with real intent.

Rebels’ chase began in handbrake mode: Ankur Sah and Hemant Joshi squeezed the opening overs, then Ankur and Hemant struck as the required rate started climbing. Shiva Perumalsamy’s 42 off 49 was the day’s long, stubborn backbone, with Samrat Khosla beside him for 20 off 26, but the rest of the chase kept disappearing in pairs. Harish Jain chipped in with two wickets, and UV Yadav arrived in the seventh over to remove two batters and make the middle order feel distinctly unwelcome 😬. Ravi Chandra’s spell was miserly after he arrived in the eighth over 😬.

Then came Arpit Sanghavi’s answer to every question: four wickets for 15 runs, including Samrat Khosla’s dismissal in the eighteenth over. The Mandalorians’ squeeze through overs 15–17 yielded only eight, and even Rebels’ late twelve-run flourish merely changed the arithmetic from difficult to cartoonish. Madhan Reddy finished the show with a wicket-maiden, Rebels ending on 92/12 in 19.1 overs. Arpit’s 13 and 4/15 earned him Man of the Match, a thoroughly deserved double act 🎉—and Mandalorians a 33-run win, with the group chat supplied for another week.