Title favourites Mumbai continued their winning run in the Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy as they beat Haryana by eight wickets in their second league game in Mumbai on Saturday. Opting to field at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai bowlers put up a splendid show to restrict the visitors to a modest 153/5.
Later, Mumbai skipper Suryakumar Yadav made a mockery of the chase with a blistering unbeaten 81 off just 38 balls as the domestic giants won with 4.2 overs to spare. Haryana openers Shivam Chauhan (28) and Harshal Patel (33) conjured a 66-run stand for the first wicket, before pacer Tushar Deshpande (2/27) sent Chauhan back in the ninth over.
Immediately after, medium pacer Shubham Ranjane dismissed Patel, who gave a sitter to Sujit Naik. One down Chaitanya Bishnoi (27) failed to convert his start as Mumbai bowlers made an impressive comeback and left Haryana teetering at 109/4.
A quick-fire 29 of 16 balls by all-rounder Rahul Tewatia, who hit two boundaries and as many sixes, helped Haryana past the 150-run mark. For Mumbai, Deshpande, whose initial omission had led to a furore, was the pick of the bowlers.
Chasing a tricky 154-run target, Mumbai lost opener Jay Bista (13) early. But then Aditya Tare (39 off 28 balls) and Surya (81 off 38 balls) stitched a match-winning 74-run second wicket stand to take the game away from Haryana.
Surya toyed with a listless Haryana attack as he hammered 11 fours and three sixes and made a case for himself for the T20 series against West Indies. He was ably supported by Tare, who stuck six fours, as they did not allow the visitors to make a comeback.
Tare’s departure did not deter Surya from playing his shots, who in company of Siddhesh Lad (16*) finished the game in 15.4 overs. Surya, off late, has been in prime form and has been taking the opposition attack to the cleaners and Haryana bowlers were no exception. This is Mumbai’s second win after they had defeated Mizoram in their first game.
In an earlier game at Wankhede Stadium, Puducherry bowlers, led by experienced R Vinay Kumar (2/20) beat Meghalaya by 19 runs. In the first game of the day at the MCA BKC, Madhya Pradesh defeated Assam by five wickets. Asked to bat, MP bowlers led by Saransh Jain restricted Assam to 101/8 and then chased it with 3.3 overs to spare.
In the second game at the MCA BKC, Bengal thrashed minnows Mizoram by nine wickets to register their first win in the tournament. Bengal bowlers led by medium-pacer Akash Deep (2/9) restricted the opposition to a sub-par 79/4 and them romped home with nine wickets to spare. There will be a break on Sunday and matches will resume from Monday.
Pacer Lukman Meriwala wreaked havoc with a career-best figures of 5/21 as Baroda beat Karnataka by 14 runs. Baroda set a mammoth 197-run target on the back of contributions from skipper Kedar Devdhar (52), Swapnil Singh (36) and Vishnu Solanki (35 not out) before their bowlers led by Meriwala sealed the victory.
Meriwala alongside medium pacer Atit Sheth (2/50) accounted for seven of the Karnataka’s eight wickets.
Chasing 197 in the Group A match, Karnataka started off well with Rohan Kadam (57) and Luvinth Sisodia (38) putting up a 53-run opening stand before the latter was dismissed by Sheth.
Devdutt Padikkal followed Sisodia to the pavilion soon after. Kadam and captain Karun Nair (47) then steadied the ship with a 86 run stand.
However, once the skipper departed in the 16th over the Karnataka middle and lower buckled under pressure falling 14 runs short of the target at the end of the stipulated 20 overs.
In the other Group A match Goa, riding on half centuries by opener Aditya Kaushik (53) and Snehal Kauthaankar (55) beat Bihar by 29 runs in a high scoring encounter.
Vohra leads Chandigarh to win over Maharashtra
Chandigarh skipper and IPL specialist Manan Vohra hit an unbeaten half century to lead his side to a comfortable seven-wicket win over Maharashtra. Chasing 163 to win, Vohra, who opened the innings alongside Amit Parashar (4), led from the front taking his side to victory with 13 balls to spare.
Vohra in his unbeaten knock of 75 hit six fours and three maximums. For Maharashtra, left-arm seamer Samad Fallah (1/45), left-arm spinner Satyajeet Bachhav (1/28) and slow medium bowler Rahul Tripathi (1/12) got a wicket each.
Earlier, opting to bat, Nikhil Naik was the top scorer for Maharashtra. He hit an unbeaten 50 off 34 balls to help his side to reach 162/8 in the stipulated 20 overs.
Chandigarh bowlers struck at regular intervals to prevent Maharashtra batsmen from stitching meaningful partnerships. Apart from Naik, opener Ruturaj Gaikwad and Swapnil Gugale chipped in with a 34 and 22 respectively.
Out-of-favour India all-rounder Kedar Jadhav also failed to impress with the bat scoring 13 off 15 balls. In the other Group C encounter, Chhattisgarh bowlers restricted Himachal to 123/8 in 20 overs before opener Veer Pratap Singh scored an unbeaten 61 to lead his side to an eight-wicket win.
Brief Scores:
Haryana 153/5 (Harshal Patel 33, Rahul Tewatia 29*; Tushar Deshpande 2/27) lost to Mumbai 154/2 (Suryakumar Yadav 81*, Aditya Tare 39; Arun Chaprana 1/31) by eight wickets.
Assam 101/8 (Pallav Kumar Das 33, Wasiqur Rahman 26*; Saransh Jain 3/13) lost to Madhya Pradesh 102/5 (Parth Sahani 27, Venkatesh Iyer 26; Abhilash Gogoi 3/24) by five wickets.
Pondicherry 126/6 (Arun Karthik 73, Paras Dogra 13; Amiangshu Sen 3/20) beat Meghalaya 107/6 (Ravi Bhamidipati 51, Sanjay Yadav 31; R Vijay Kumar 2/20) by 19 runs.
Mizoram 79/4 (Pawan Prasad 35, Lalhma Ngaiha 21; Akash Deep 2/9) lost to Bengal 82/1 (Vivek Singh 52, Shreevats Goswami 21*; Abhay Kumar 1/5) by nine wickets.
Baroda 196/4 in 20 overs (Kedar Devdhar 52; Krishnappa Gowtham 2/22) beat Karnataka 182/9 in 20 overs (Rohan Kadam 57 ; Lukman Meriwala 2/21) by 14 runs.