The Jharkhand juggernaut rolled on as they defeated Nagaland by 54 runs for its fourth straight victory in the Syed Musthaq Ali Trophy tournament at Mulapadu on Wednesday.
Jharkhand piled up 197/3 in 20 overs riding on good knocks by in-form captain Ishan Kishan (52), Kumar Deobrat (69*) and Anukul Roy (47*) and then restricted Nagaland to 143/3.
The 111-run partnership for the fourth wicket in a little over eight overs between Deobrat and Roy, who hit four boundaries and three sixes, shut out Nagaland as they bowlers wilted under the onslaught.
In reply, the Nagaland batsmen couldn’t force the pace and ended up 54 runs short. Sedezhalie Rupero, who made 38 from 54 balls, struggled to get the big hits while captain Rongsen Jonathan made 47.
Pacer Varun Aaron bowled his four overs conceding just 13 runs and picked up one wicket. In other matches, Kerala thrashed Jammu and Kashimr by 94 runs, bundling out their opponents for just 65 after making 159/7 while Delhi defeated Andhra Pradesh by 32 runs to notch up their fourth victory.
Mumbai halted in their tracks
Railways dished out a clinical performance, crushing formidable Mumbai by 57 runs and snapping their unbeaten run in the group stage of the domestic T20 tournament.
Coming into the match, Mumbai had won all their games so far in the tournament.
But in their Group C match against Railways, the domestic giants put up a sub-par show.
Put into bat by Mumbai skipper Ajinkya Rahane, Railways posted a competitive 175/5 in their 20 overs with opener Pratham Singh (89) top-scoring.
Chasing 176, the famed Mumbai batting line-up collapsed as they were shot out for 118 in 18.1 overs.
For Railways, their openers Pratham Singh (89 off 60 balls) and Mrunal Devdhar (43 off 20 balls) put up 65 runs for the first wicket.
Pacer Tushar Deshpande got the breakthrough for Mumbai after he cleaned up Devdhar, who struck two fours and five sixes.
Railways lost one-down Prashant Awasthi (0) early.
But the quick fall of two wickets did not deter 26- year-old Pratham, who kept playing his shots.
He hit nine fours and three sixes as Mumbai bowlers were taken to task and it was due to his blazing knock that Railways made 175/5.
Mumbai lost openers Rahane (4) and young prodigy Prithvi Shaw (6) cheaply, leaving them at 12-2.
In-form Shreyas Iyer (16) and dependable Siddhesh Lad (2) also fell in quick succession as Mumbai slumped to 33/4.
Barring Surya Kumar Yadav (38) no other batsman crossed 20-run individual mark.
Mumbai were never in the fray as they kept losing wickets and were eventually bundled out for 118.
For Railways, slow left-arm orthodox bowler Ashish Yadav (4-32) was the pick of the bowlers and was well supported by others.