A round-up of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 matches played on Monday.
Domestic giants Mumbai continued its winning run in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy thrashing Madhya Pradesh by nine wickets in Mumbai on Monday.
This was Mumbai's third win on the trot after they beat Mizoram and Haryana in the first two league games of Group D in the national T20 tournament.
Mumbai rode on blistering half centuries by openers Jay Bista (68 off 36 balls) and Aditya Tare (74 not out off 48 balls) to chase the 160-run target with ease at the Wankhede stadium.
Electing to bat, Madhya Pradesh had a horror start with their opener Ashutosh Sharma run out for a duck on the first ball of the innings.
Skipper Naman Ojha (22 off 17 balls) and one down Rajat Patidar (25 off 17 balls) tried to steady the ship with a 39-run stand for the second wicket.
When Ojha, who hit three fours and a six, appeared to take his side ahead, left-arm spinner Shams Mulani cleaned him up.
Two down Parth Sahani made a quick fire 47 off 36 balls, hitting three fours and two sixes, before being bowled by medium pacer Shubham Ranjane.
Both Patidar and Sahani failed to convert their starts to leave MP reeling at 108 for 4.
An unbeaten 31 off 29 balls from Anand Bais and 19-ball 24 from Venkatesh Iyer helped MP breach the 150-run mark.
For the hosts, Shams Mulani (1-17), Ranjane (1-24), Sujit Nayak (1-26) and Tushar Deshpande (1-34) were among the wickets.
Chasing 160, Bista and Tare laid the foundation stone of the win with a quickfire 111-run stand for the opening wicket.
The duo took a listless MP attack to the cleaners with Bista the more aggressive of the two.
While Bista smashed seven fours and four sixes, Tare hit 10 boundaries and two sixes as the two Mumbai openers dominated in front of their home fans.
After Bista was dismissed by Kuldeep Sen, Tare took the onus on himself to complete the match as Mumbai won with 4.1 overs to spare.
In the earlier game at Wankhede, Bengal defeated Meghalaya by 55 runs.
Asked to bat first, Bengal piled up a huge 207/4 in their 20 overs courtesy of half-centuries by opener Vivek Singh (57) and Abhimayu Easwaran (61), who toyed with the Meghalaya attack.
Bengal bowlers Ishan Porel (2-22) and Arnab Nandi (2-24) shared the spoils as their team registered a comfortable victory.
Meanwhile, in the first game at the MCA stadium in Mumbai's Bandra Kurla Complex, Puducherry eked out a 31-run win against Mizoram.
A gritty unbeaten 76 by opener Taruwar Kohli went in vain as Puducherry bowlers dished out a clinical show to restrict 124/4, well short of their target.
In the day's second game at BKC, India spinner Yuzvendra Chahal joined the Haryana squad but was rested for the game against Assam.
Haryana rode on half-century by opener Harshal Patel (62) to register a three wicket win against Assam.
Brief Scores:
At Wankhede: Madhya Pradesh 159/5 (Parth Sahani 47, Anand Bais 31 not out; Shams Mulani 1-17)lost to Mumbai 165/1 (Aditya Tare 74 not out, Jay Bista 68; Kuldeep Sen 1-29) by nine wickets.
Bengal 207/4 (Abhimanyu Easwaran 61, Vivek Singh 57; Abhay Negi 2-31) beat Meghalaya 153/4 (Sanjay Yadav 45 not out, Mark Ingty 39 not out; Ishan Porel 2-22) by 55 runs.
At BKC: Puducherry 155/7 (Anand Subramanian 42, Rohit Damodaran 39; Su Mit Lama 3-25) beat Mizoram 124/4 (Taruvar Kohli 76 not out, Pawan Prasad 26; Ashith Sanganakal 2-25) by 31 runs.
Assam 158/8 (Riyan Parag 58, Pallav Kumar Das 43; Amit Mishra 2-23) lost to Haryana 159/7 (Harshal Patel 62, Chaityana Bishnoi 32; Pritam Kumar Das 2-25) by three wickets.
Upendra powers UP to win over TN
Wicketkeeper-batsman Upendra Singh Yadav hammered an unbeaten 41-ball 70 to power Uttar Pradesh to a five-wicket win over Tamil Nadu in a Group 'B' match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy
T20 tournament in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday.
Sent into bat Tamil Nadu made 168 for 7 in the quota of 20 overs, thanks to a brisk knock of 61 by skipper Dinesh Karthik and a half-century by the stylish opener M Vijay (51).
In reply, Upendra kept the team in the hunt with his attacking strokeplay and a 52-run fourth-wicket partnership with Shubham Chaubey (35) was instrumental in UP securing victory with a ball to spare.
In the Tamil Nadu innings, the experience of Vijay and Karthik came to the fore as the duo forged a 75-run stand for the second wicket after opener N Jagadeesan (2) fell early.
Vijay started off with a flurry of boundaries before settling down and proving to be a good foil for his captain.
Karthik, meanwhile, was in his element, as he smashed five fours and four sixes.
However, Tamil Nadu frittered away the platform provided by Karthik and Vijay and save for Vijay Shankar, who hit a quickfire 28 from 14 balls, the others could not help the team put up a bigger score.
UP got off to a steady start with openers Akshdeep Nath (25) and captain Samarth Singh (21) negotiating probing spells from T Natarajan and G Periyaswamy.
Upendra, who came in at the fall of Samarth, upped the ante with some aggressive batting and the Tamil Nadu bowlers couldn't find a way to dislodge him.
He stayed till the end to see the team home, inflicting Tamil Nadu's first defeat following two wins.
Meanwhile, Vidarbha beat Manipur by 70 runs for a third straight win. The two-time Ranji Trophy champion leads Group B with 12 points from three games.
Brief scores:
Vidarbha 150 for 6 in 20 overs (Jitesh Sharma 73 not out, Rushabh Rathod 25) beat Manipur 80 for 9 in 20 overs (Sagatpam Singh 36, Yash Thakur 4/5, DG Nalkande 2/15).
Tamil Nadu 168 for 7 in 20 overs (Dinesh Karthik 61, Murali Vijay 51, Vijay Shankar 28, Moshin Khan 2/13, Ankit Rajpoor 2/35, Kuldeep Yadav 2/37) lost to Uttar Pradesh 174 for 5 in 19.5 overs (Upendra Singh Yadav 70 not out, Shubham Sanjay Chaubey 35, Akshdeep Nath 25, G Periyaswamy 2/35).
Kerala 191 for 7 in 20 overs (Sachin Baby 58, Rohan Kunnummal 30, M B Mura Singh 2/42, Ajay Sarkar 2/52) beat Tripura 177 for 8 in 20 overs (Milind Kumar 54, Udiyan Bose 27, Mura Singh 27, Jalaj Saxena 4/26).
Delhi thrash Nagaland
A disciplined all-round effort helped Delhi thrash Nagaland by eight wickets in a Group E match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in Surat.
Electing to field, Delhi restricted Nagaland to 75 for nine in their stipulated 20 overs before returning to overhaul the target, scoring 78 for two in 12.3 overs.
While left-arm spinner Pawan Negi claimed three wickets, Lalit Yadav, S Bhati and Karan Dagar accounted for one wicket each.
Batting first, only three Nagaland batsmen -- M Wotsa, S S Mundhe and I Lemtur -- could reach double figures.
Chasing the target, Delhi rode on some useful contributions from the top-order with skipper Dhruv Shorey top-scoring with a run-a-ball 27 and Nitish Rana scoring 20 not out.
In other Group E matches, Saurashtra registered a comfortable 57-run win over Gujarat at the Lalabhai Contractor Stadium.
Batting first, Saurashtra rode on fifties by Dharmendrasinh Jadeja (59), Samarth Vyas (55) and Sheldon Jackson (57) to post a challenging 214 for seven.
In reply, Gujarat could only manage 157 for eight in 20 overs with Axar Patel (70) doing the bulk of scoring.
Brief Scores:
Nagaland 75 for 9 in 20 overs (SS Mundhe 22; Pawan Negi 3/11) lost by eight wickets to Delhi 78 for two in 12.3 overs (DR Shorey 27; S Binny 2/21).
Saurashtra 214 for 7 in 20 overs (Sheldon Jackson 57; Roosh Kalaria 2/28) beat Gujarat 157 for 8 in 20 overs (Axar Patel 70; Jaydev Unadkat 3/32) by 57 runs.
Jharkhand 107 allout in 19.4 overs (Virat Singh 44; Umar Nazir 5/17) beat Jammu and Kashmir 100 all out in 19.5 overs (Shubham Khajuria 38; S Nadeem 2/10) by 7 runs.
Sikkim 121 for 4 in 20 overs (Yashpal Singh 63; Ankit Yadav 1/17) lost by 7 wickets to Odisha 125 for 3 in 17.1 overs (Subhranshu Senapati 44; Plazor Tamang 2/20).
