Mumbai convincingly defeated Madhya Pradesh by 44 runs in their third Group B match, in the Inter-State Twenty20 cricket tournament at the Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium in Motera, Ahmedabad, on Wednesday.

Madhya Pradesh won the toss and chose to field first. Though Sachin Tendulkar failed for the first time in the competition (he had earlier scored 68 against Tamil Nadu and 69 versus Haryana), captain Amol Muzumdar and promising young batsman Rohit Sharma ensured that Mumbai posted an impressive total without much ado.

Anand Raju bounced back to claim Tendulkar's wicket as the batsman was held at mid-on just after he whacked the bowler for three consecutive fours. He made 13.

Muzumdar, who seemed to make amends for his earlier lack of big scores in the tourney, scored a fine innings of 57 off just 35 balls. It was quite a sight to see the usually quiet Muzumdar take the bowling apart, as he hit four fours and a massive six.

Sharma maintained his good run with the willow and blasted the hapless Madhya Pradesh bowlers while playing an aggressive knock of 39 off 25 deliveries, inclusive of two sixes and four fours.

The highlight of Sharma's innings was the 26 runs (inclusive of 2 sixes and 2 fours) he scored off Shantanu Pitre's over. The Madhya Pradesh fast bowler did not know what hit him as Sharma just kept smashing all his deliveries.

Musavir Khote, too, was not at all behind Sharma in terms of aggression. He scored 31 off merely 17 balls and hit two sixes and a four.

Mumbai finished at 188 for six in 20 overs.

With 2 for 39, Abbas Ali was the most successful Madhya Pradesh bowler.

Madhya Pradesh badly needed to win this tie. And though Brijesh Tomar and Rahul Bakshi tried their best, the team could not go beyond 144 for 6 in 20 overs, falling short by 44 runs.

Tomar scored 57 (56 balls, 6x4, 1x6) and Bakshi 40 (31 balls, 3x4, 1x6).

Ajit Agarkar was the most successful bowler for Mumbai with figures of 4-0-27-2. Zaheer Khan and Iqbal Abdulla also took a wicket each.

Tamil Nadu thrash Haryana

Later in the evening, under floodlights, Haryana suffered yet another defeat in the tournament, losing to Tamil Nadu by 51 runs.

Needing to score 163 to win the game, their batsmen produced another lacklustre display and all they could put together was 111 in 19.4 overs against some fine bowling by S Vidut (4-0-14-3), P Amarnath (4-0-25-2) and V Yomahesh (4-0-29-2).

Only Vishal Sinha and Sandeep Singh, who both scored 25 runs, handled the Tamil Nadu bowlers with some confidence and character.

Batting first on winning the toss, Tamil Nadu were all out for 162 on the last ball of the final over of their innings. India wicketkeeper Dinesh Kaarthick showed glimpses of his class with the willow while essaying 37 off 27 balls.

Kaarthick, who is about to tie the knot, hit five fours and a six.

The other Tamil Nadu batsmen who chipped in with useful contributions were S Vidut (30 off 18 balls, 1x4, 2x6), V Devendran  (26 off 26 balls, 4x4) and S Anirudha (22 off 16 balls, 3x4).

For Haryana, Jitendra Billa took four wickets for 26 runs and Amit Mishra and Gaurav Vashistha two each.

On Thursday, the last day of the competition, Tamil Nadu take on Madhya Pradesh in the day match, while Mumbai plays Bengal in the evening.