A round-up of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy matches on March 21, 2013
ESPNcricinfo staff21-Mar-2013East ZoneOdisha qualified for the next round of the Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy with a 34-run win over Bengal, who also made it through. Chasing a total of 130, Bengal were restricted to 95 for 7 after Suryakant Pradhan (4-0-8-3) and Basant Mohanty (4-0-14-2) kept the Bengal batsmen in check. Earlier, Odisha, who chose to bat, were dismissed for 129. Govind Podder top-scored with 46 but none of the other batsmen fired. Laxmi Ratan Shukla and Iresh Saxena took three wickets each.Assam comfortably chased Jharkhand’s 148 in Agartala. Jharkhand were in a spot of bother at 20 for 3, with Arup Das’ twin strikes. A 70-run stand for the fourth wicket between Saurabh Tiwary and Keshav Kumar helped lend stability. Kumar finished with 56, and along with Shiv Gautam (24), pushed the total to a competitive 148. Assam struck regular partnerships as Rishav Das (28), Pallavkumar Das (50) and Dheeraj Jadhav (38), set up the foundation for a successful chase. Mithun Mukherjee had best figures of 3 for 32.Central ZoneA collective bowling performance from Uttar Pradesh gave them a nine-wicket win over Rajasthan in Nagpur. Rajasthan started promisingly, as their openers added 43, but lost their next nine wickets for only 60 runs. Ankit Lamba top-scored with 51, one of two batsmen to score in double-figures, as Rajasthan compiled 103. Imtiaz Ahmed took a career-best 4 for 5, and RP Singh and Ali Murtaza took two wickets each. Uttar Pradesh comfortably chased Rajasthan’s total within 15 overs, with Eklavya Dwivedi (65*) and Prashant Gupta (33) leading the way. Uttar Pradesh share the top spot with Vidarbha in the Central Zone table.
Madhya Pradesh registered their second win of the tournament beating Railways by three wickets. MP reached their target of 159 with four balls to spare after captain Udit Birla scored a 36-ball 48 to lead his side’s chase. Earlier, Railways were restricted to 158 for 7 after being put in to bat. Anand Rajan picked up three wickets but was also expensive, conceding 48 runs in his four overs.North ZoneHimachal Pradesh chased Jammu & Kashmir’s 133 with five wickets to spare in Gurgaon. J&K were in a spot of bother at 33 for 2, but Parvez Rasool (44*) and Bandeep Singh (20), helped propel the score to 133. Gurvinder Singh had best figures among Himachal’s bowlers, taking 3 for 18. Himachal’s chase was anchored by innings from Vikramjeet Malik (30) and Paras Dogra (50), who helped their side to victory in the 19th over.Punjab beat Services with seven wickets to spare. All Punjab bowlers picked up wickets, as Services’ batsmen failed to capitalise on their starts, ending at 114 for 9. Rahul Sharma took 3 for 20, and was ably supported by Manpreet Gony (2-24), and Rajwinder Singh (2-21). Punjab’s chase was hampered by the regular fall of wickets, as Services’ bowlers did their best to keep the chase tight. They were able to hold off Services till the final over, when Gony and Sharma finished off the match.Delhi’s bowlers held their nerve to eke out a two-run win over Haryana. Parwinder Awana played a key role in Delhi’s defence of 110, picking up three wickets for 11 runs off his four overs, as Haryana finished at 108 for 8. Batting first, Delhi were dismissed for 110 in their 20 overs with as many as four run-outs in their innings.South ZoneMayank Agarwal’s maiden T20 century and four-wicket hauls from K Gowtham and Manish Pandey set up Karnataka’s 12-run win over Hyderabad. Sent in to bat, Agarwal and Pandey started well and Lokesh Rahul also chipped in. However, their innings went awry in the last over by C Milind, as they went from 185 for 3 to 185 for 7 losing four wickets in four balls. In reply, Hyderabad had a strong start but lost their way after Gowtham and Pandey dismissed the top order.Kerala chased down a target of 184 to beat Tamil Nadu by four wickets with four balls to spare. Opener VA Jagadeesh scored 75 off 51 balls to guide Kerala’s chase, after a poor start had left them at 29 for 2 in the third over. Earlier, Tamil Nadu posted a strong total of 183 for 3 with contributions from Arun Karthik (66) and forties from Dinesh Karthik and Abhinav Mukund.Andhra successfully chased Goa’s 146 with three balls to spare in Shimoga. Goa lost their openers early, with Swapnil Asnodkar (50), Ravikant Shukla (15) and Saurabh Bandekar (18) providing the only meaningful contributions. Andhra’s response was led by Srikar Bharat’s 51. The rest of the batting order chipped in with valuable knocks as Andhra scraped to victory with three balls left.West ZoneAditya Waghmode’s 66 helped Baroda chase Saurashtra’s 133 in Ahmedabad. Saurashtra’s openers started strongly with a 74-run stand. But once Bhushan Chauhan (43) and Jaydev Shah (49) fell, the rest of the batting folded meekly, as Saurashtra scraped to 133 for 8. Bharghav Bhatt was the pick of the bowlers with 3 for 28. Baroda’s reply was shaped by innings from Ambati Rayudu (47) and Waghmode (66), as they chased Saurashtra’s score within 17 overs.A 63-ball 109 from Vijay Zol and a career-best five-wicket haul from Rahul Tripathi set the foundation for Maharashtra’s 17-run win as Mumbai crashed to their fourth defeat of the tournament. Maharashtra powered their way to a first-innings score of 215 for 4, thanks largely due to Zol and Kedar Jadhav. Zol struck 11 fours and five sixes during his maiden T20 century. In reply, Mumbai floundered as Maharashtra’s bowlers, led by Rahul Tripathi, took regular wickets. Tripathi finished with career-best figures of 5-27 in only his second T20 match.
