Delhi, Vidarbha cruise into quarterfinals, TN knocked out

Young Nitish Rana continued his blazing form as Delhi beat Baroda by five wickets to enter the quarter-final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament on Sunday.

Batting first, Baroda managed a decent 153 for six in 20 overs. Hardik Pandya hit an unbeaten 51-ball-81 with five boundaries and six sixes. Delhi left-arm spinner Manan Sharma bowled well to grab 4/17 in four overs. Delhi finished the match with three balls to spare riding on left-hander Rana’s 29-ball-53 that had three boundaries and five sixes. Gautam Gambhir’s pathetic show in the tournament continued as he got 9 off 15 balls.

Delhi finished the group league engagements with full 24 points from six games.

In Nagpur, Vidarbha booked a quarterfinal berht by beating Himachal Pradesh by 27 runs and also topping group A in the process.

Opener Jitesh Sharma scored 106 off 65 balls with 12 boundaries and three sixes as Vidarbha piled 183 for six in 20 overs. Interestingly, the next best was Faiz Fazal with 20. In reply, Himachal Pradesh managed only 156 in 19.5 overs. Skipper Bipul Sharma scored 58.

In the other game at Nagpur, Gujarat assured their place in the knockout stages as pacers RP Singh and Jasprit Bumrah led them to a nine-wicket win over Haryana at the VCA stadium. Opting to field, Gujarat bowled out Haryana for a paltry 95. RP Singh registered figures of 3/16,  while Bumrah was even more impressive with 3/10.

Tamil Nadu failed to qualify for the knockout stage, in spite of their victory against

Hyderabad by four wickets in Group A.

After losing the toss, Hyderabad were put in to bat and managed to score only 140 in their 20 overs. In reply, Tamil Nadu completed the chase with eight balls to spare at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Jamtha. For Tamil Nadu, Dinesh Karthik was the highest scorer for Tamil Nadu with 43 off 311 balls. 

Jharkhand defeated Kerala by six wickets to qualify for the knockout stage on Sunday.

Opting to field in the Group B match, Jharkhand restricted Kerala to 169 for six in the stipulated 20 overs at St St Paul’s College Ground here.

In reply, Jharkhand chased down the target in excatly 19 overs, reaching 174 with four wickets to spare.

Ishank Jaggi top-scored for Jharkhand with 45 off 32 balls, while Kaushal Singh slammed 33 off just 18 balls with the help of three boundaries and two sixes to guide the side home.

In the other two Group B games played in Kochi, Saurasthra and Rajasthan won their respective matches against Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir.

Himanshu Chawla scored a belligerent half-century but other Punjab batsmen let the side down as Saurashtra won the inconsequential gam.

Electing to bat first, Saurashtra scored 167 for five with a collective batting effort. The openers did not do well but skipper Jaydev Shah led from the front with a fighting 35. Punjab’s top-order failed terribly with openers Jiwanjot Singh and Pargat Singh falling cheaply. Yuvraj Singh did not even open his account. Chawla brought Punjab back in the game with his gritty batting but with his dismissed, Punjab’s innings fell apart.

Meanwhile, Rajashthan defeated Jammu and Kashmir by 45 runs in a dead rubber.

Siddharth Dobal (71) and Ankit Lamba (54) fired Rajasthan to 174 for 5 before their bowlers restricted J&K to 129 for 7 in 20 overs. Both teams failed to reach the quarterfinals. 

Rajasthan ended their sorry campaign with a solitary win in six games while J&K failed to win a match.

Madhya Pradesh defeated Assam by five wickets at Vadodara on Sunday. 

Madhya Pradesh restricted Assam to 138 for six in the stipulated 20 overs, and then chased down the target in 19.4 overs at the Reliance Stadium. Harpreet Singh top-scored for Madhya Pradesh with an unbeaten 63 off 49 balls.