Nita Ambani owned ‘Mumbai Indians’ team beat Rajasthan Royals by 37 runs and booked their seat in the semi-finals of the lucrative Indian Premier League. Since the beginning of Indian Premier League, Mumbai Indians has remained the favorite team of season 3 and almost everyone bet on the team as IPL 3 winner. But at the IPL 3 finals on 25th April, 2010, fate favored Chennai Superkings and Mumbai Indians lost the match by 22 runs. For Mumbai Indians, IPL 3 has been a fantastic journey with one of the strongest squad consisting of Sachin Tendulkar, KA Pollard, Harbhajan Singh, SL Malinga and other talented players carrying the team from strength to strength.

D Y Patil stadium was packed to capacity as thousands of cricket fans thronged the place to witness the IPL 3 final between the two strong sides. The finale was thrilling with great shots from the master blaster Sachin Tendulkar, though his presence in the team was doubtful due to the injury. The Mumbai Indians played consistently well all through the tournament and Nita Ambani constantly showed her support for the team by being present in almost every match played by the Mumbai Indians. After disappointing everyone in the cricket world with poor performance in both the previous seasons of IPL, this year, the Mumbai team was seen as the toughest and the most enduring side from the very beginning.

Talking about the team performance, one name that cannot be skipped out is that of K.A Pollard who actually led Mumbai Indians to the final of IPL 3. While the hear tearing over why Pollard was not brought to bat earlier continues, his contribution of a whopping 27 runs off 10 balls made it a close call for the Chennai Super Kings during the middle overs of the game.
The owner of Mumbai Indians, Nita Ambani presented the Orange cap to Sachin Tendulkar for scoring maximum runs in the third season of Indian Premier League. The skipper of the runners-up team was also awarded DLF Golden Player of IPL 3.

After the finals, Sachin Tendulkar was quoted as saying, “A couple of important catches cost us. There is a saying that catches win matches. The start in the run-chase also was not up to the mark. We could have accelerated a little bit more. Towards the end, Kieron Pollard came in with a fine effort but it was a bit late. We tried hard to accelerate the run-rate but it was one of those days when things did not click.”

Harbhajan Singh’s superb performance led to the Mumbai Indians victory against Deccan Chargers in a previous game. Harbhajan smashed the bowlers with unbeaten 49 runs and also cracked three wickets by giving away 31 runs. With the spirit intact, Mumbai Indians is expecting to win the next IPL with Sachin Tendulkar’s assurance of playing in the IPL 4.

Source:http://news-views.in/mumbai-indians-almost-there/

Nita Ambani dons many hats as the Chairperson of DAIS, co-owner of Mumbai Indians, first lady of Corporate India and many more. This time the educationist and social worker in her have joined hands in reaching education to underprivileged and disadvantaged kids.

Although the third season of the popular Twenty20 tournament is only 17 days away, Nita’s busy supporting the underprivileged kids of five NGOs through an initiative called ‘Education For All’. Some members of her team, the Mumbai Indians, Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan & Co. are actively participating in this initiative. Commercials were launched across national television channels on Sunday featuring Sachin, Bhajji and Zaheer, who appeared in 15-second commercials for the cause, but the real stars of this Mumbai Indians promo are the children who make an endearing appearance with Nita Ambani at the end.

Nita Ambani intends taking her cause to the masses just like American cycling legend Lance Armstrong did for cancer victims in 2004, the Mumbai Indians is selling blue silicone wristbands signed by Tendulkar and other greats from the team that say ‘Education For All’. Every band sold will mean some amount of money goes towards the NGOs Pratham, Ummeed, Akanksha, Teach For India and Nanhi Kali that do exemplary work in educating underprivileged children. The sale proceeds will be matched by a contribution from the Mumbai Indians’ kitty.

Nita Ambani is counting on the huge fan base her team has across the country to boost the sales, but since it is for a charitable cause, all benevolent Indians supporting other IPL teams are expected to pitch in and buy the bands as well. The educationist in Nita Ambani who believes that education is the key that unlocks the potential of every child says, “It’s a small and humble effort”. She, as an erstwhile school teacher and current Chairperson of the Dhirubhai Ambani International School, has thrown open her institute, which in the evenings becomes an education centre for Akanksha’s underprivileged kids. Besides which, through the Reliance rural schools in Maharashtra and Gujarat, Nita also looks after the education of 15,000 other children.

“One of India’s big needs is for every underprivileged kid, especially the girl child, to know how to read and write,” continued Nita Ambani. “This is a cause that’s very dear to me, and Sachin, Harbhajan and Zaheer were happy to endorse it in the promo.” The sale of these ‘Education For All’ bands that are available at all Reliance and Sahakari Bhandar stores in Maharashtra is just the basic fund raiser. Nita, who sits cheering in the dug-outs whenever her team is playing, will take 120 of these kids to see every home match. She later plans to hold a special benefit match for them with her players.