Mumbai, Mar 26: Punjab beat Mumbai by five wickets to seal a spot in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy final.
Asking the strong Mumbai batting line-up to bat first, Punjab restricted the home team to 122 runs. Although they could score only one run off VRV Singh’s first over, the openers scored 13 off the second over, by Manpreet Gony. Jaffer, who had hit the paceman for two boundaries, was dismissed in the bowler’s next over for 13 runs.
Next man in Abhishek Nayar could not recreate the magic from his previous innings and was run out by Harbhajan Singh for four. In the next over, Bipul Sharma removed Ajinkya Rahane’s off stump. The opener, who had looked in good nick, had hit two boundaries and a six on the way to 21.
Surya Kumar Yadav was the next man out, trying to sneak in a non-existent single. The youngster had welcomed the Punjab skipper with a six off the off-spinner’s first ball. A little later, Amitoz Singh took a good catch at long-off boundary to send back Rohit Sharma who had attempted to hit Rahul Sharma over the ropes. In his next over, Rahul picked the wicket of Aditya Tare. In the following over, Taruwar Kohli, running in from deep mid-wicket, took a catch diving forward to dismiss Iqbal Abdulla off VRV to leave Mumbai on 99 for seven.
Ankit Chavan and Ajit Agarkar were then removed by Gony off the last two balls of the penultimate over bringing Javed Khan out in the middle with Dhawal Kulkarni.
Khan and Kulkarni added 13 runs off the last over to stretch Mumbai’s total to 122 for the loss of nine wickets.
Chasing 123, Sarul Kanwar and Chandan Madan scored 37 runs for the first wicket before the former was trapped lbw by Dhawal Kulkarni. Kulkarni, who was hit for two boundaries in his first over by Chandan, claimed the wicket in his second over after being brought back into the attack. Javed Khan then rattled Gurukreet Singh’s stumps after changing ends in the next over. Defending a modest total, misfields and dropped catches added to Mumbai’s woes as Chandan Madan and Mandeep Singh continued to add runs.
Soon after Punjab reached the three-figure mark, Mandeep was caught at short extra-cover by Rohit off Iqbal Abdulla and one delivery later, Chandan was stumped. Chandan, who was dropped on 21 by Surya Kumar Yadav off Khan, made 55 off 44 with nine fours.
The two new batsmen, Bipul Sharma and Taruwar Singh, needed to score 18 off the last five overs but Iqbal struck again to remove Bipul. Abdulla’s three quick wickets left Punjab reeling at 108 for five. But Amitoz hit a six off Ankit Chavan, and later a four off Agarkar, to ensure victory for Punjab. Taruwar clinched the match, and a position in the final, with a boundary off the Mumbai skipper.
Brief scores: Mumbai 122/9 in 20 overs (A Rahane 21, SA Yadav 20, M Gony 3/32, Rahul Sharma 2/15) lost to Punjab 124/5 in 19 overs (C Madan 55, M Singh 22, I Abdulla 3/20) by five wickets
