Baroda continued their winning run in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy by claiming a 60-run victory over Maharashtra in an Elite Group C game Vadodara on Saturday.
This is Baroda’s fourth win on the trot in the league stage after having defeated Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in their first three outings.
Put in to bat, Baroda rode on stand-in skipper Kedar Devdhar’s stroke-filled unbeaten 99 off 71 balls to post a competitive 158/4.
Right-arm medium pacer Atit Sheth (4/17) then wreaked havoc to scuttle out Maharashtra for a meagre 98 and give his team four full points.
Devdhar, who was handed the captaincy after regular skipper Krunal Pandya left the bubble following his father’s demise, took on a listless Maharashtra attack.
The right-handed opener hammered 11 fours and four sixes in the process and held together the innings despite losing partners at the other end.
One down Vishnu Solanki (28), however, could not convert his start while others Smit Patel (12), Ninad Rathwa (0) and Bhanu Pania (11) fell cheaply.
In reply, Maharashtra was reeling at 2/2 after losing openers Swapnil Gugale (0) and Ruturaj Gaikwad (1) early and their innings never got going.
Naushad Shaikh (32) and Kedar Jadhav (25) tried to take the game deep, but once the duo departed it was all over for the visitors as none of their other batters could even put up a fight.
Sheth, who grabbed four wickets and did bulk of the damage, was ably supported by slow-left arm bowler Ninad Rathwa (3/21) and left-arm pacer Lukman Meriwala (2/14), as they put up an impressive show.
Assam pulled off an upset 13-run win over Bengal in a Elite Group B in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 tournament in Kolkata on Saturday while Tamil Nadu won their fourth straight match to go top of the points table.
Bengal opted to field and saw the talented Riyan Parag (77, 54 balls, 5 fours, 5 sixes) help Assam put up a fighting 157’5 in 20 overs.
The visiting team restricted Bengal to 144/8. From a spot of bother at 22/2, Assam rode on skipper Parag’s breezy knock, which helped the team score 47 runs in the last 3.5 overs.
Parag took 18 runs from the 18th over bowled by Ishan Porel (2/34 from 4 overs) to give thrust to the Assam innings.
Chasing 158 for victory, Bengal looked on course before faltering towards the end as the Assam bowlers kept a check on the run flow. From 130/3 in the 18th over, Bengal slid to 144/8 in 20 overs as Pritam Das (3/27) and skipper Parag (2/28) did the damage.
Bengal captain Anustup Majumdar (48, 47 balls, 4 fours) failed to take the team past the finish line as he saw batsmen at the other end fall in a heap.
In another match, skipper Dinesh Karthik (40 not out, 30 balls, 2X4, 2X6) and N Jagadeesan (78 not out, 51 balls, 4X4, 5X6) saw Tamil Nadu home against Hyderabad after a brief stutter in the middle of the innings.
Earlier, Hyderabad made 152/7 in 20 overs thanks to contributions from B Sandeep (41) and Pragnay Reddy (30) and late hitting by C V Milind (30, 11 balls, 3 sixes).
TN leads the group with 16 points after four consecutive wins followed by Bengal (12 from 4 matches). The two teams face off on January 18 with the top spot on the line.
As per the format of the tournament, the top ranked teams from each group (Five in Elite and 1 Plate) will qualify for the knockout stage along with the next two teams in Elite Groups A to E with the most points.
Brief Scores
Baroda 158/4 (Kedar Devdhar 99 not out, Vishnu Solanki 28; Taranjitsingh Dhillon 2/30) won against Maharashtra 98 all out (Naushad Shaikh 32, Kedar Jadhav 25; Atit Sheth 4/17, Ninad Rathwa 3/21) by 60 runs.
Uttarakhand 128/6 (Jay Bista 30, Karnaveer Kaushal 27; Pankaj Jaiswal 4/15) lost to Himachal Pradesh 130/0 (Abhimanyu Rana 72 not out; Prashant Chopra 54 not out) by 10 wickets.
Chhattisgarh 63/3 in 5 overs (Vishal Singh 20 not out; Piyush Chawla 2/10) lost to Gujarat 64/2 in 3.4 overs (Ripal Patel 32; Sourabh Majumdar 2/18) by eight wickets.
Assam 157/5 in 20 overs (Riyan Parag 77 not out, Denish Das 34) beat Bengal 144/8 in 20 overs (Anustup Majumdar 48 not out, Manoj Tiwary 33, Pritam Das 3/27) by 13 runs. Assam: 4 points, Bengal:0.
Hyderabad 152/7 in 20 overs (B Sandeep 41, Pragnay Reddy 30, B Aparajith 2/22) lost to Tamil Nadu 155/3 in 19.3 overs (N Jagadeesan 78 not out, Dinesh Karthik 40 not out) by seven wickets. TN: 4 points, Hyderabad:0.
(With inputs from PTI)
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