Mumbai, Mar 24: With a century and two wickets Delhi skipper Rajat Bhatia led his team into the Syed Mushtaq Ali semi-final. Delhi beat Railways in a thrilling last-over finish by one run in the first quarter-final here today.
Put in to bat, Delhi lost their top three wickets in quick succession. A direct hit from mid-off by Anureet Singh saw the back of Shikhar Dhawan on the last ball of the first over. In the next over Anureet clipped Farman Ahmed’s bails, while Shilendra Gehlot followed with the wicket of Punit Bisht. Mithun Manhas and Rajat Bhatia then added 29 runs for the fourth wicket until the former was trapped lbw by Avinash Yadav.
With just 43 runs on the board and the top four batsmen back in the pavilion, captain Rajat Bhatia led the counter-attack against Railways. Bhatia plundered the bowling attack, hitting the Railways bowlers all over the park.
The Delhi skipper found an able ally in Puneet Mehra (29 off 26) and the duo added 73 off 57 balls before Mehra was bowled by Karan Sharma for 29. Bhatia continued to march on, reaching his century with a six off Gehlot in the last over. His 60-ball 107 included eight hits over the rope and six boundaries. Yogesh Nagar who replaced Mehra departed soon, Pawan Negi (7*) helped his skipper pile-on with a 31-run unbroken partnership.
75 runs came off the last five overs which later cost Railways the match. Anureet Singh was hammered for 20 in the penultimate over, while Gehlot was slammed for 20 more in the last over.
Chasing 181, Railways decided to take the opposition head on. Pawan Suyal was slammed for 11 runs in the first over with Amit Paunikar hitting two boundaries in it. A couple of overs later the opener was sent back by Praveen Suyal for 14. Faiz Fazal who replaced him, added 22 off 14 but Sunny Sherawat dealt a double blow in the seventh over to claim Fazal and Bangar. While Bhatia dismissed Khanolkar off the first ball of the next over; Dhiren Salvi who had replaced him, ran himself out to leave Railways on 63 for five. Karan Sharma then joined Ashish Yadav at the crease and the duo added 28 for the sixth wicket before Bhatia struck again to claim Ashish.
And a while later Bishnoi edged a Pradeep Sangwan delivery to the wicketkeeper. With seven wickets down and 59 required off 28, Railways faced an uphill task. However Karan Sharma with Avinash Yadav at the other end continued to put-up a fight. Sharma hit Sherawat for two boundaries and one six in the 18th over that yielded 17 runs. In the next over Yadav got in on the action by hitting two boundaries off Suyal as the duo brought Railways into sniffing distance of the victory.
With Sharma and Avinash on song and with 14 runs required off the last over, Mithun Manhas was given the ball by Bhatia. Although the first ball was a wide, his next delivery to Sharma – a mistimed shot gave the batsman two off the next ball. Sharma then cleared the sightscreen with a six, followed by a double. With three required off two balls Sharma was caught by Sangwan while attempting another aerial shot. Facing Manhas off the last ball, Avinash managed to only take a single and was run out while trying to level the score as Railways finished with 179 for the loss of nine wickets.
Brief scores: Delhi 180/6 in 20 overs (R Bhatia 107*, P Mehra 29, Anureet Singh 2/41) beat Railways 179/9 in 20 overs (K Sharma 67, F Fazal 22, R Bhatia 2/28, S Sherawat 2/42) by 1 run
