A round up of the Mushtaq Ali T20 group matches on Tuesday:
Nadaun: Delhi lost their second game in a row after their star studded batting line-up, including the likes of Shikhar Dhawan and Gautam Gambhir, failed to fire against Himachal Pradesh in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament, on Tuesday.
Delhi lost the game by 48 runs after their batsmen could only manage 115 for nine in reply to Himachal's 163 for five.
Dhawan (12) failed for the second game in a row and it was a third failure for skipper Gamhbir (6) in as many innings.
Delhi had lost to Punjab on Monday after winning their opener against Jammu and Kashmir. They play Haryana in Dharamsala, on Wednesday.
Himachal lost opener Prashant Chopra early before Ankush Bains (23) and Paras Dogra (42) forged a 59-run stand. What followed later was the match winning partnership between Bipul Sharma (32 not out) and Rishi Dhawan (37 not out), who smashed 70 runs off 34 balls in their sixth wicket partnership.
Delhi started their chase badly losing both Dhawan and Gambhir inside the first three overs.
The match was pretty much decided with Delhi reeling at 28 for five in the fifth over. Milind Kumar (31) and Pradeep Sangwan (24) tried their best to get Delhi back into the game but the damage had already been done.
Odisha, Bengal clinch thrilling wins
Kolkata: Odisha and Bengal secured thrilling last-over wins over their respective opponents in the East Zone leg matches of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 tournament at the Eden Gardens.
Odisha clinched a nerve-wracking three-wicket victory after being set 150 for victory by Jharkhand, while later in the afternoon, Bengal seamers trio of Kanishk Seth (3-23), Ashok Dinda (2-28) and Sayan Ghosh (2-20) put up a disciplined effort at the death to pip Tripura by five runs.
Electing to bat, Bengal put up a lacklustre display with the bat as they were reduced 49 for four before Manoj Tiwary (39) and Pankaj Shaw (39 not out) stitched a 61-run fifth wicket partnership to rally the hosts.
Tripura almost got past the target with Smit Patel steering their chase with a 33-ball 41 before captain Manisankar Murasingh's quickfire 27 from eight balls.
Left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha (1-36) leaked 17 runs from his last over with Murasingh hammering him for two boundaries and a six before being dismissed as the Tripura needed just 11 from the last two overs.
But Bengal pace spearhead Dinda turned the match on its head with his twin strikes in the penultimate over when he dismissed Patel and Bunti Roy before Ghosh brilliantly defended five runs in the last over to start their campaign on a winning note.
Odisha, meanwhile, found a fine finisher in Abhishek Yadav who sealed the chase with a ball to spare.
Anurag Sarangi laid the foundation with a strokeful 58 but after his departure the 21-year-old Yadav held his calm as he stroked an unbeaten 26 to help Odisha register their second victory on the trot.
This was Jharkhand's second loss as they went down to Assam by four wickets in their opening match. Put in to bat, Jharkhand rode on Ishank Jaggi's 47 and Kumar Deobrat's 44 not out to post 149 for five.
Odisha needed 15 runs from the last over as Jharkhand skipper Saurabh Tiwary trusted Shahbaz Nadeem over his seamers, a move that backfired as the left-arm spinner bowled a no-ball with Yadav hitting the winning boundary from the resultant free-hit.
TN thrash Goa, Karnataka down Andhra
Chennai: Opening batsman Abhinav Mukund struck an aggressive unbeaten 68 to help Tamil Nadu notch up a comfortable nine-wicket win over Goa in a South Zone leg match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament.
Chasing a meagre target of 108 for a win, Tamil Nadu knocked off the required runs in 13.1 overs with Mukund carrying his bat till the end, hitting six fours and two sixes in his 52-ball knock.
India batsman Murali Vijay, who returned to competitive cricket after spending more than a month on the sidelines with a shoulder injury, made 16 from as many balls before he was run out at the Guru Nanak College Ground in Chennai.
Earlier, opting to bat, Goa were all out for 107 in 16.2 overs as they lost nine wickets for just 19 runs.
Goa's dramatic collapse began in the 11th over with the run out of Swapnil Asnodkar for 33. It took only six overs for their innings to crash from 88 for 1 to 107 all out, inclusive of three run outs.
Six of the seven wickets that fell to bowlers came courtesy the spinners, with Murugan Ashwin, Rahil Shah and Baba Aparajith taking two wickets each.
In another South Zone match at M A Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, Pavan Deshpande's 28-ball 51, his maiden T20 fifty, and Mayank Agarwal's brisk 46 helped Karnataka beat Andhra by 37 runs.
Opting to bat, Karnataka piled on 177 for eight with Agarwal stitching a 57-run partnership with Shishir Bhavane which helped Karnataka recover from the loss of R Samarth in the first over.
Karnataka's bowlers then collectively stifled Andhra, especially in the middle overs to win the match.
Vidarbha beat Railways by 23 runs
Jaipur: Vidarbha produced a disciplined all-round performance to notch up a 23-run win over Railways in a Central Zone T20 game of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur.
Vidarbha's top-order dished out a solid show with Jitesh Sharma scoring 41 off 40 balls and Ambati Rayudu and Akshay Karnewar putting together substantial partnerships for the second and third wickets respectively.
Rayudu blasted a quickfire 45 off 29 balls, with four fours and three sixes, in a 67-run stand for the second wicket, while Karnewar scored a 24-ball 42, hitting five fours and a six as Vidarbha scored 172 for six in their stipulated 20 overs after being asked to take the first strike.
Vidarbha, infact, amassed 56 off the last five overs, courtesy an unbeaten 34 off 19 balls by Apoorv Wankhade.
In reply, Railways could only manage 149 for seven, with wicketkeeper Mahesh Rawat hitting 41-ball 55 and Anureet Singh scoring a 17-ball unbeaten 32 at No. 9.
Karnewar and Ravi Jangid were the best bowlers as they picked two wickets each.
In another Central Zone match, Railways beat Uttar Pradesh by 16 runs.
AS Lamba and Puneeth Yadav blasted a matching 61-run innings to guide Rajasthan to 169 for seven in 20 overs. Ankeet Rajpoot picked up a five-wicket haul, while Amit Mishra scalped one for Uttar Pradesh.
In reply, PSK Gupta (40) and Samarth Singh (19) gave them a good start but the rest of the batsmen failed to contribute as UP were restricted to 153 for seven in 20 overs.
Image: Shikhar Dhawan
Photograph: BCCI
