Economic Laws Practice (ELP) has won the eighth cricket ELP Masters Cup in Mumbai against AZB & Partners in the finals by 12 runs late yesterday.

ELP scored 80 runs after losing the toss to AZB but AZB failed to catch up, having scored only 47 runs in five overs and finally losing by 12 runs by the end of the sixth over.

Man of the match in the final and of the series was ELP’s Amit Manubarwala, while the best bowler award went to ELP’s Harsh Shah.

AZB’s Vivek Shetty (who had recently joined from DSK Legal) won best batsman.

“It was for me at least a long long journey and a lot of trying, for the last [six] years I’ve been with the team and we’ve not got it,” said the ELP’s, Deep Roy, who helped manage the team. Roy mused that he did not play this year as wicket keeper but managed the team instead after finding a “better wicket keeper this year”.

“Yesterday it was a brilliant team effort, and all the brilliance actually came together and that’s what made it possible,” he added.

The match turner in the final game was the batting of Roy’s colleague Vishal Kulkarni, who made the difference between 65 and 81 runs with three consecutive boundaries that clinched the game for ELP, said Roy.

The team’s obligatory above-40-year-old player, ELP managing partner Rohan Shah, had played on Friday but could not make it on Sunday, so he was replaced by ELP partner Sujjain Talwar, who Roy said had bowled and acquitted himself well.

Roy said that the team had been practising for about a month.

In the semi-finals, ELP had won against Hariani & Co, which decided to field first. ELP’s score of 92 runs couldn’t be bettered by Hariani, which came just 8 runs short.

AZB won against DSK Legal in the semi-finals. After DSK laid down 71 runs, AZB eventually needed just two runs from five balls to advance to the finals. Instead, AZB hit a six.

Man of the match in the semi-finals went to ELP’s Harsh Shah and AZB’s Gautam Sahni.

The competition started on Friday and saw 16 law firms duke it out at the Wilson Gymkhana Ground, Marine Drive, Mumbai, as every year.

Partners playing including ELP’s Rohan Shah and Sujjain Talwar, Khaitan & Co’s Rabindra Jhunjhunwala, Nishith Desai Associates’ Nishchal Joshipura, Trilegal’s Karan Singh and AZB’s Rajendra Barot, as well as Talwar Thakore Associates' Kunal Thakore and Wadia Ghandy's Ashish Ahuja.

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas partcipated for the first time this year; Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas did not.

Last year, ELP had lost against DSK in the finals.