Ocean XI 123/10 in 20 overs (Yashveer 39, Rohit 26,Anoop 3/15) defeated Shell SBO 103/10 in 18.5 overs (Saurabh 23, Illias 20, Amit 4/17) by 20 runs
Professional premier league 2019 concluded with a low scoring final at the Bengaluru professional sports arena. The tournament began way back in February which saw 6 teams going head to head in a league cum knockout format. The tournament was streamed live on Facebook and people from across India witnessed some extremely great contest throughout the course of past 6 months.
Ocean XI and Shell SBO turned out to be the top two teams not just after the league phase, but even after the knockouts as well. They were ranked first and second respectively on the points table and now they were ready to fight it out for the glittering trophy, and a designation of 'Champions'.
A lot of things changed since both these teams met first time this year. IPL 2019 was still a few weeks away, England weren’t the world champions, Steven Smith and David Warner were still restricted from playing at international level. In fact when they met in the first qualifier back in June, the record of Pakistan against India was still 0-6 at the ODI World Cup. Only two things remain same, the Indian PM and Ocean XI's unbeaten streak against Shell SBO now.
Ocean XI could manage only 123 in their 20 overs after they elected to bat first when the coin landed in their favour. They were three down for 29 after which Yashveer and Rohit added 55 runs to give them some respite but just when things looked good and both the batsmen were set to go for a big score, the pair of Pulkit and Suraj gave them a double blow. As the partnership was broken, the gate was wide open for the Shell bowlers to run through the taileneders, and they did that. The last 5 overs could yield only 30 runs for the Ocean XI.
Despite a low first inning total, Ocean XI had all the reason to believe that they can defend the total. They had four out of top five wickets takers of the tournament in their XI. They ran through batting linueps throughout the tournament and Shell SBO knew it as they faced them twice prior to the final. This same bowling linuep ran through FCC Bengaluru for 36 back in the March.
Shell SBO were not looking bad at 36 for 2 in seventh over but unfortunately they succumbed to some extremely clever plans of their opposition. They failed to form any partnerships at all and were bowled out 20 runs short. Amit ran through their top order and the tail enders had no answers to the bumpers of Hemant Bharti. Apart from Saurabh (23) and Illias (20) no other batsmen could stand there and whether to storm for long and as a result, Ocean XI made it 3-0 against Shell BSO this year and most importantly, had their name on the trophy.
