Domestic giants Mumbai continued its winning run in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy thrashing Madhya Pradesh by nine wickets in Mumbai on Monday. This is 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.
In the game at the Wankhede Stadium, 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.
Electing to bat, Madhya Pradesh had a horrendous start with their opener Ashutosh Sharma being run out on a zero 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 as MP were reeling at 108/4.
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 an 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 other hits over the fence. They took the game away from MP as Bista played round the park. After Bista was dismissed by Kuldeep Sen, Tare took the onus on himself to complete the match.
UP stun Tamil Nadu
Wicketkeeper-batsman Upendra Singh Yadav hammered an unbeaten 41-ball 70 (4 fours, 5 sixes) to power Uttar Pradesh to a five-wicket win over Tamil Nadu in Thiruvanathapuram.
Earlier, sent into bat Tamil Nadu made 168/7 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 Yadav 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 smote 5 fours and 4 huge sixes. However, Tamil Nadu frittered away the platform provided by Karthik and Vijay and save for Vijay Shankar (28, 14 balls, 2 fours, 2 sixes), the others could not help the team put up a bigger score.
Delhi thrash Nagaland
A disciplined all-round effort helped Delhi thrash Nagaland by eight wickets in Surat on Monday. Electing to field, Delhi restricted Nagaland to 75/9 in their stipulated 20 overs before returning to overhaul the target, scoring 78/2 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 214/7. In reply, Gujarat could only manage 157/8 in 20 overs with Axar Patel (70) doing the bulk of scoring.
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