Senior batter Ajinkya Rahane struck a scintillating 56-ball unbeaten 95 as heavyweights Mumbai made short work of Odisha en route to a nine-wicket victory in a Group A match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, in Lucknow, on Monday.
After Odisha posted what seemed a respectable 167 for seven, riding on a collective effort from their top and middle-order batters, Rahane took charge of the situation while putting on 74 runs for the first wicket with Sarfaraz Khan, who blazed away to a 15-ball 28 to put Mumbai in command.
Rahane was not out when victory was achieved at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium.
After the dismissal of Sarfaraz, the 37-year-old Rahane was associated in an unbroken second-wicket partnership of 94 runs with Angkrish Raghuvanshi, who helped himself to a breezy 38 in 26 balls, as Mumbai completed the chase of 168 with as many as four overs to spare.
During his stay in the middle, Rahane smashed nine fours and three sixes and forced Odisha skipper Biplab Samantray to use as many as seven bowlers.
As far as the Mumbai bowling unit is concerned, Suryansh Shedge was the most successful on the day with figures of 3/46 in four overs, while there were two wickets for Sairaj Patil (2/42 in 4 overs).
Brief scores:
Odisha 167/7 in 20 overs (Sandeep Pattnaik 31, Sambit Baral 28, Aashirwad Swain 28; Suryansh Shedge 3/46) lost to Mumbai 168/1 in 16 overs (Ajinkya Rahane 95 not out) by 9 wickets.
Railways 170 all out in 20 overs (Suraj Ahuja 47, Navneet Virk 30) lost to Chhattisgarh 171/5 in 19.1 overs (Amandeep Khare not out 78, Snajeet Desai 36) by 5 wickets.
Shami shines, but Bengal lose
Mohammed Shami's impressive figures of 4 for 30 went in vain as Haryana comfortably beat Bengal by 24 runs in a Group C game to enter the Super 8s in Hyderabad.
Haryana (+0.409) finished the group league engagements with 20 points and qualified as the second team from the group behind Punjab (+2.716), who logged the same number of points but had a better net run-rate.
Shami finished the tournament with 16 wickets and on the day, was once again instrumental in polishing off the Haryana tail, restricting them to 191 for 9. This was after Haryana were 170 for 4 in 17 overs.
In this edition of SMAT, Shami has been very effective at death barring the Punjab game when Abhishek Sharma took him to cleaners.
In reply, Bengal managed only 167 in 20 overs and that too after requiring 69 runs from eight overs with six wickets in hand.
The match changed once Yuvraj Keswani (25 off 14 balls), who looked in good touch having hit two sixes, was dismissed. Anshul Kamboj, Ishant Bhardwaj and Sumit Kumar got two wickets apiece while Abhishek Porel (47 off 24 balls) didn't convert a dazzling start.
Punjab top group to enter Super 8s
Mumbai Indians star Naman Dhir smashed 61 off 36 balls as Punjab cruised to a 75-run victory over Gujarat to qualify for the Super 8s.
Playing without Abhishek Sharma, Punjab posted 188 for 8 in 20 overs and then a collective bowling performance saw Gujarat decimated for 113 in 16.1 overs. Punjab with 20 points topped group C, followed by Haryana.
Amit Pasi stars in Baroda's win
Debutant opener Amit Pasi hit 10 boundaries and nine sixes in his 55-ball-114 as Baroda beat Services by 13 runs in a high scoring game.
Pasi, the 26-year-old, who made a name in Baroda Premier League, guided Baroda to 220 for 5 and then winners restricted Services to 207 for 8.
With the effort, Pasiequalled Bilal Asif's record for the highest score on T20 debut.
However neither Baroda (16 points) nor Services qualified for the next stage.
Brief scores:
Haryana 191 for 9 in 20 overs (Nishant Sindhu 48, Mohammed Shami 4/30) beat Bengal 167 in 20 overs (Abhishek Porel 47, Ishant Bharadwaj 2/18, Sumit Kumar 2/25, Anshul Kamboj 2/42) by 24 runs
Punjab 188 for 8 in 20 overs (Naman Dhir 61, Harpreet Brar 24 not out, ArzanNagwaswalla 2/21) beat Gujarat 113 in 16.1 overs (Ashwani Kumar 2/7, Sanvir Singh 2/7) by 75 runs.
Services 207/8 in 20 overs (Kumwar Pathak 51, Raj Limbani 3/37) lost to Baroda (AH Pasi 114; Abhishek 3.33) by 13 runs.
Delhi end campaign with win over Uttarakhand
Yash Dhull and skipper Nitish Rana scored fine half-centuries as Delhi ended their campaign with an 18-run win over Uttarakhand in Ahmedabad.
With their third win in seven games, Delhi finished third in Group D, behind Jharkhand and Rajasthan who advanced to the Super 8s.
Both Dhull (52 off 37) and Rana (51 off 29) had a productive tournament but Delhi failed to progress to the next stage.
Delhi made 162 for seven in 20 overs before limiting Uttarakhand to 144 for seven. Prashant Chopra (54 off 50 balls) top-scored for Uttarakhand.
Leg-spinner Suyash Sharma and Digvesh Singh Rathi took two wickets each for Delhi that stemmed the flow of runs.
Jharkhand topped Group D after a 36-run win over Rajasthan, maintaining their unbeaten run in the group stage.
Jharkhand hammered 215 for five courtesy quickfire contributions from Virat Singh (69 off 36), captain Kushagra (55 off 37 and Robin Minz 58 off 27). Rajasthan could only manage 179 in 19.2 overs.
Brief scores:
Delhi 162/7 in 20 overs (Yash Dhull 52, Nitish Rana 51; Agrim Tiwari 2/18) beat Uttarakhand 144/7 in 20 overs (Prashant Chopra 54; Suyash Sharma 2/27, Digvesh Rathi 2/22) by 18 runs.
Jharkhand 215/5 in 20 overs (Virat Singh 69, Robin Minz 58; Kukna Ajai Singh 1/23) beat Rajasthan 179/10 in 19.2 overs (Karan Lamba 52; Sushant Mishra 3/21) by 36 runs.
Bihar humble UP by 6 wickets
India's T20 specialist Rinku Singh failed to fire with the bat as Bihar humbled fancied Uttar Pradesh by six wickets in their Group B match in Kolkata.
Opener Piyush Singh shone with a 54-ball 57 to help Bihar complete a chase of 145 with four balls to spare after Mangal Mahrour returned excellent figures of 3/12 in four overs to help his team restrict UP to 144 for six in the allotted 20 overs.
Mahrour, who bowls medium pace, was well supported by skipper Sakibul Gani (1/20) and Sakib Hussain (1/31), both picking up a wicket each in their full quota of overs but Amod Yadav was expensive as he leaked 50 runs for a solitary success.
Batting at number seven, Prashant Veer top-scored for UP with an unbeaten, counter-attacking 40 off 26 balls after IPL star Rinku was dismissed for a 25-ball 19 by Mahrour at the Jadavpur University Campus ground.
Middle-order batter Sameer Rizvi scored a 17-ball 22, while pacer Shivam Mavi remained not out on 13 off 12 balls.
In reply, Bihar were off to a great start as the opening du of Piyush and wicketkeeper Ayush Loharuka (36 off 36 balls) added 83 runs in 11.3 overs to lay the foundation for a successful chase.
Piyush hit four boundaries and a six during his stay in the middle, before Bipin Saurabh provided the finishing touches with a breezy, unbeaten 26 off 16 balls.
Prince Yadav was the most successful bowler for Uttar Pradesh, finishing with figures of 3/24 in four overs.
Brief scores:
Uttar Pradesh 144/6 in 20 overs (Prashant Veer 40 not out; Mangal Mahrour 3/12) lost to Bihar 145/4 in 19.2 overs (Piyush Singh 57; Prince Yadav 3/24) by 6 wickets.
Maharashtra 161/7 in 20 overs (Rahul Tripathi 83; Vasuki Koushik 3/20) beat Goa 146 all out in 19.3 overs (Lalit Yadav 49; Jalaj Saxena 3/22, Tanay Sanghvi 3/23, Vicky Ostwal 3/27) by 15 runs.
Hyderabad 146/8 in 20 overs (Pragnay Reddy 43; Jagjit Singh 3/36, Chiragvir Dhindsa 2/18, Sandeep Sharma 2/33) lost to Chandigarh 147/6 in 19.5 overs (Arjun Azad 63, Shivam Bhambri 42; Chinntla Rakshan Readdi 2/36, Chama V Milind 2/27) by 4 wickets.
Jammu and Kashmir 150/9 in 20 overs (Auqib Nabi; Tripuresh Singh 3/32) beat Madhya Pradesh 137 all out in 20 overs (Harsh Gawali 33; Auqib Nabi Dar 3/19) by 13 runs.
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