T20 league: Mumbai outclass Saurashtra for second win

Powerful batting lower down the order followed by tidy bowling helped Mumbai thrash Saurashtra by 16 runs in the West Zone T20 league game, for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, at the MCA's BKC ground in Mumbai on Wednesday.

Put in to bat, Mumbai started slowly before Sarfaraz Khan and Sujit Nayak batted aggressively to guide the team to a challenging total of 145 for five.

The pair, which remained unconquered, scored 46 runs off just 16 balls for the sixth wicket.

Sarfaraz, who made his T20 debut, hit a breezy 20-ball 36 that included four fours and a six while Nayak played a blinder, scoring 23 runs off seven balls with the help of two fours and as many sixes.

Openers Aditya Tare (29) and Sushant Marathe (25) forged a 46-run stand to lay a good platform before both were beaten by flight and stumped off left arm spinner Arpit Vasavda, who claimed four wickets.

Saurashtra started the run chase slowly and scored just 19 runs in the first six over. They were unable to accelerate and fell short of the target, finishing with 129 for seven.

Cheteshwar Pujara, who opened their innings, scored a 60-ball 62, including seven fours and a straight six off left-arm spiner Nayak.

The India Test No. 3 played a lone hand to remain unbeaten till the penultimate over while Sheldon Jackson scored 26 and skipper Jaydev Shah hit 14.

Pujara was dismissed while trying to find a boundary as Sushant Marathe took a brilliant catch at deep mid-wicket off the bowling of Mumbai captain Zaheer Khan.

Left-arm Zaheer got rid off Pruthvi Solanki in the next ball and would have got another wicket in the same over but for a dropped catch. Medium-pacer Prathamesh Dhake scalped three wickets, while Zaheer bagged two.

This was Saurashtra's second successive defeat and Mumbai's second win in three games.

Brief scores: Mumbai 145 for 5 (Sarfaraz Khan 36, Aditya Tare 29, Sushant Marathe 25; Arpit Vasavada 4 for 19, Jaydev Unadkat 1 for 37) beat Saurashtra 129 for 5 (Cheteshwar Pujara 62, Sheldon Jackson 22; P Dhake 3 for 25, Zaheer Khan 2 for 29.

Delhi beat J&K by six wkts

Chandigarh: Delhi produced a clinical performance to comfortably beat Jammu and Kashmir by six wickets and register their second consecutive win in a North Zone match.

Left-arm spinner Varun Sood (3-14) and seasoned Rajat Bhatia (2-26) shared five wickets between them as Delhi restricted J&K to a modest 119 for eight after electing to bowl at the Sector 16 stadium.

J&K skipper Perveez Rasool resisted the Delhi attack with aplomb, scoring 44 off 38 balls under pressure, to give his bowlers something to fight for.

Chasing the modest score, experienced openers Virender Sehwag (22) and Gautam Gambhir (6) could not score big, becoming early victims of Abid Nabi, but Delhi overhauled the target with one over to spare.

Young Unmukt Chand guided the chase with a responsible 39-run knock and Bhatia provided the finishing touches with an unbeaten 28 off 16 balls.

Meanwhile, in a match at PCA stadium in Mohali, Haryana beat Services by eight runs.

It was pacer Ashish Hooda who turned the tide Haryana's way with a five-wicket haul.

Haryana put up a competitive 144 for seven after being asked to bat as opener Avi Barot played a superb knock of 78 from 58 balls.

Services had a good start as openers Yashpal Singh (18) and Nakul Verma (46) added 60 runs for a strong foundation but they could mange 136 for seven in the end.

Hooda removed both the openers and also scalped Anshul Gupta (6) while Jayant Yadav dismissed Rajat Paliwal (4) to reduce Services to 75 for 4.

Soumya Swain waged a grim battle with an unbeaten 32 from one end but ran short of partners as Hooda got rid of two more batsman to script Haryana's second win in a row.

Assam beat Odisha by 35 runs

Kolkata: Assam came back into the reckoning with a 35-run victory over Odisha in their East Zone league match at the JU second campus ground in Salt Lake.

Pritam Das, with figures of 4-19, was the wrecker-in-chief, denting Odisha's 138-run chase and bundling them out for 102 in 17.2 overs.

Brief Scores:

Assam 137-6 (Sibsankar Roy 47, Dheeraj Jadhav 33, Rishav Das 27; Deepak Behera 2-23, Biplab Samantray 2-17) bt Odisha 102 in 17.2 overs (Paresh Patel 38; Pritam Das 4-19, J Syed Mohammad 2-19, Arup Das 2-19, Abu Nechim Ahmed 2-23) by 35 runs.

Image: Sarfaraz Khan