BHUBANESWAR 05-Apr-2015 51
A three-wicket haul and an 18-ball 29 by allrounder Mandeep Singh piloted Punjab to a six-wicket win over Rajasthan in a crucial Group B super league match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy All-India T20 Cricket Tournament at DRIEMS Stadium in Tangi (Cuttack) today.
With this win, their third in four matches, Punjab finished group toppers with 12 points and set up Tuesday`s title clash with Gujarat, who topped Group A with 16 points, outplaying Andhra by seven wickets for their fourth win in a row here at KIIT Cricket Ground.
Earlier, Mumbai beat Hyderabad by 25 runs at DRIEMS Stadium and Himachal Pradesh prevailed over Madhya Pradesh by eight runs at KIIT Ground in two other super league matches of the day which were played only for academic interest.
The task for Punjab became easier as Rajasthan, who elected to bat first, were bundled out for 101. Siddharth Kaul and Mandeep Singh engineered the disintegration of the Rajasthan innings, picking up three wickets each. Punjab chased down the target with 20 balls to spare. Mandeep too made a decent contribution with the bat, hitting four fours and one six in his 29.
Four players put up notable performance in Gujarat`s comfortable win over Hyderabad. Rush Kalaria and Rohit Dahiya claimed three wickets each to help Gujarat dismiss the opposition for a modest 127. A 48-ball 51 by opener Smit Patel and a 25-ball unbeaten 44 by Rujul Bhatt then did the spadework for Gujarat to overhaul the target with 15 balls to go.
BRIEF SCORES:
At DRIEMS Cricket Stadium:
Rajasthan 101/10 in 19 overs (Siddharth Kaul 3/11, Mandeep Singh 2/21, Shubek Gill 2/16) lost to Punjab 102/4 in 16.4 overs (Mandeep Singh 29, Gurkeerat Sing 27 n.o; Pankaj Singh 2/14) by 6 wkts.
Mumbai 186/4 in 20 overs (Shashank Singh 61, Eknath Kerkar 53 n.o, Sufiyan Shaikh 41) beat Hyderabad 161/9 in 20 overs (Hanuma Vihari 81, Sandeep 20; Prathamesh Dake 3/16, Sidak Singh 3/32) by 25 runs.
At KIIT Cricket Stadium:
Himachal Pradesh 145/6 in 20 overs (Prashant Chopra 59, Raghav Dhawan 46; Jatin Saxena 2/24, Yogesh Rawat 2/38) beat Madhya Pradesh 137/10 in 19.4 overs (Parth Sahani 47, Harpreet Singh 40; Pankaj Jaiswal 4/12, Shresth Nirmohi 3/20) by 8 runs.
Andhra 127/10 in 19.5 overs (Mohammad Kaif 58, Jyothisaikrishna 21, Naren Reddy 20; Rush Kalaria 3/17, Rohit Dahiya 3/24, Chintan Gaja 2/15) lost to Gujarat 128/3 in 17.3 overs (Smit Patel 51, Rujul Bhatt 44 n.o; K Sasikanth 2/24) by 7 wkts.
