With a five-wicket haul Deepak Chahar bowled Team Rajasthan to a win over Karnataka while Bengal beat Delhi to register their first win of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20, Super League. While Tamil Nadu triumphed over Uttar Pradesh, Punjab were defeated by Jharkhand in a thrilling contest in Kolkata.
Group ATeam Rajasthan vs Karnataka – With a five for 15, Deepak Chahar bowled, Team Rajasthan to a stunning 22-run win over Karnataka in the ongoing tournament. Having set the Vinay Kumar-led team a 161-run target, Team Rajasthan skittled them out for 138 to rein in victory.
Aditya Garhwal and Ankit Lamba (58 off 47) got the team off to a decent start with a 47-run opening stand until the former was bowled by Arvind Sreenath. Lamba and SF Khan then strengthened foundation with a 67-run partnership for the second wicket. However, after Pravin Dubey accounted for the opener to leave the team on 114 for two wickets in the 14th over, Rajasthan lost wickets at quick intervals. While Stuart Binny claimed Khan to leave the side on 122 for three in the next over, Abhimanyu Mithun followed up with the wicket of TM Dhillon. While Karnataka attack continued to pick a wicket every over thereafter Rajasthan finished with 160 for eight in their stipulated overs.
Chasing the respectable target, Karnataka then lost Karun Nair; bowled by Lamba leaving the side on 2/1 off the fifth ball of the innings. 17 runs later Chahar accounted for Samarth R and was on a hat-trick with the wicket of A Mithun but missed the opportunity. In his next over the bowler once again claimed CM Gautam and Binny off successive deliveries to leave the side reeling on 24 for five. S Ahmed then sent back Mayank Agarwal in the next pushing Karnataka further on the back-foot at 30 for six in just the seventh over.
While Aniruddha battled on and remained unbeaten on 73 off 45 balls, the rest of the lineup too caved in to the Rajasthan attack. Supplementing D Chahar’s efforts, CP Singh took two wickets while Lamba, Ahmed and R Chahar picked a wicket each to take their team to victory.
Scorecard Group B Delhi vs Bengal – Bengal registered their first win of the phase by handing Delhi their first defeat in the Super League by three runs.
Boosted by Sudip Chatterjee’s 34-ball 51, after Shreevats Goswami and Virat Singh’s 36-run opening stand Bengal posted 170 for six in their quota of overs. After Goswami was removed by Pradeep Sangwan, Virat and Chatterjee added 58 for the second wicket. Lalit Yadav caught the opener of his own bowling to leave Bengal on 94 for two.
Chatterjee then partnered with Manoj Tiwary to add 35 runs to the total until he was sent back by Kulwant Khejroliya. 12 runs later the captain was bowled by the pacer leaving the side for 141 for four. In the penultimate over, the Delhi captain got the better of Writtick Chatterjee leaving the side on 159 for five. While Sumanta Gupta was run out for a three with a ball left in the innings, Anustup Mujumdar (16* off 8) took the side to 170.
Kanishka Seth then claimed Rishabh Pant in the second over and in his next accounted for Gautam Gambhir to leave Delhi on 23 for two. In his following over the bowler also sent back Nitish Rana with the side on 31. Dhruv Shorey, who had come in at the fall of Pant’s wicket meanwhile continued to rally on in an effort to keep the chase of course. With Sayan Gosh removing Milind Delhi were 68 for four in the tenth over. With Lalit Yadav, Shorey then forged a 88-run partnership to keep the innings in reckoning until Gosh struck. He claimed the top-order batsman to end the stand and later in the over also accounted for Yadav and kept the match hanging in balance. With 13 required off 12 balls the game headed to a thrilling finish. After adding four runs to the tally with his captain, Pawan Negi sent back by Manoj Tiwary leaving Delhi on 162 for seven with six deliveries left in the innings. Ashoke Dinda then, bowling the last over ensured Bengal a nerve-wracking win. He trapped Sangwan lbw off the penultimate ball to leave Delhi on 166 for eight. The experienced pacer took the team to a narrow win with Subodh Bhati and Varun Sood at the crease when the game ended.
Scorecard Uttar Pradesh vs Tamil Nadu – Tamil Nadu pulled off a five-wicket over Uttar Pradesh at the Eden Gardens. Chasing 163 to win, TN attained the target with four balls to spare.
Earlier, coming to the crease in the third over after Samarth Singh was removed by Vijay Shankar leaving UP on 12 for one, Suresh Raina once again shaped the team’s innings. After a whirlwind century in the previous match, the left-handed batsman once again played a key role for his side with a 41-ball 61. He partnered with Shivam Chaudhary for 70 runs until the opener was sent back by M Ashwin leaving the side on 82 for two. With Akshdeep Nath, Raina then built a 53-runs stand until being sent back by MS Washington Sundar. While Sundar also claimed Rinku Singh in his next over, Nath helped his team to 162 for four with an unbeaten 38-run knock.
Opening the innings with K Bharath Shankar, Sundar had helped put together 35 runs until his partner was sent back by Mohsin Multan Khan. 64 runs later he too was sent back by the bowler leaving TN on 99 for two. Sanjay Yadav (52 off 32) then helped the team to 129 with Baba Aparajith until being sent back by Ankit Rajpoot. The bowler also accounted for Vijay Shankar in the same over to leave TN on 130 for four in the 16th over. While 13 runs later Baba Aparajith was bowled by Praveen Kumar, N Jagadeesan (20* off 11) took the team across the line.
Scorecard Punjab vs Jharkhand – Jharkhand pulled off a four-wicket win with three balls to spare in a nail-biting finish at the Eden Gardens.
Punjab, who were riding on the back off two successive wins, elected to bat in their third match. Varun Aaron then claimed Manan Vohra and caught Harbhajan Singh off his own bowling to leave Punjab on 24 for two. Four runs later, Gurkeerat Mann was sent back by Jaskaran. With Yuvraj Singh, Mandeep Singh then helped the team to 75 before being sent back two runs short of his half-century by Kaushal Singh. 14 runs later, the bowler accounted for Sharad Lumba and in his next removed Yuvraj to leave Punjab on 95 for six in the 16th over. Abhishek Gupta (31*) and Manpreet Singh Grewal (25 off 15) then took the team to 149 for seven and the latter was dismissed by Monu Kumar off the last ball of the innings.
Chasing the 150-run target, Jharkhand lost Kumar Deobrat to Barinder Sran with 28 runs on the board. Shahbaz Nadeem then joined Ishan Kishan in the middle. The pair added 24 runs to the total until Siddharth Kaul claimed Nadeem. Virat Singh then complemented the opener in taking the team to 77 before being run out. 21 runs later, Kishan was bowled by Harbhajan Singh for 54.
Kaushal and Saurabh Tiwary then carried the innings forward with a 40-run stand until the former departed. Tiwary then continued the chase with Atul Surwar. The teams were going neck and neck and with 12 runs required off 12 balls the match was hanging in balance. Tiwary took the game to the opposition. With eight required of six balls he hit Grewal for a four over fine-leg but was out taking the aerial route off the next delivery. With four runs required off four balls, Vikash, who took guard towards the third-man region and a mis-field by the fielder manning the ropes saw Jharkhand get the all-important boundary and clinch the game.
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