A collective effort by Delhi's batsmen ensured that they comfortably chased down a mammoth Railways total with 4 wickets in hand in the opening group C match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament, here on Saturday.
Railways scored 210 for two in 20 overs on one of the flattest of decks with No 3 batsman Saurabh Wakaskar scoring 118 off 55 balls with seven boundaries and 11 sixes. He added 185 runs with former RCB player Asad Pathan (85).
Two of Delhi's most consistent bowlers — left-arm spinners Manan Shama (0/55 in 4 overs) and Pawan Negi (1/48 in 3 overs) were taken to task by Wakaskar. Even Ashish Nehra (0/32 in 4 overs) looked ordinary on a batting belter.
However Delhi chased down the target in 19.2 overs as almost all the batsmen save skipper Gautam Gambhir (10), who is out of form, scored runs.
Opener Unmukt Chand (in pic) started the chase with a 19-ball-38 with four boundaries and three sixes. Nitish Rana with a whirlwind 34 off 15 balls that included four sixes also played his part.
But it was young right-hander Aditya Kaushik, who impressed one and all. With 53 off 36 balls that included five boundaries and a six as he held the innings during middle overs. The defining partnership was between Pawan Negi (35 no off 18 balls) and Milind Kumar (23 off 17 balls) as they added 61 runs in 4.5 overs to take the match away from Railways. It was pint-sized Negi, who finished the match with his fifth boundary off the second delivery of the final over bowled by Anureet Singh.
Brief Scores
Railways: 210/2 (Saurabh Wakaskar 118, Asad 85, Nehra 0/32) lose to Delhi: 214/6 (Aditya Kaushik 53, Pawan Negi 35 no, Unmukt Chand 38, Krishnakant 2/36).
saha stars in Bengal's win
Nagpur: Wriddhiman Saha's brutal innings and Mohammed Shami's fiery spell ensured an easy 61-run win for Bengal against Hyderabad in their opening group A league match in the National T20 Championship for Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.
Batting first, Bengal scored a healthy 185 for 4 in 20 overs courtesy Wriddhiman's 47-ball-81.
In reply, Hyderabad were all out for 124 in 16.2 overs with Shami being the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3/18 in 2.2 overs. He got good assistance from the seasoned Pragyan Ojha (3/23 in 4 overs).
Bengal got four points by virtue of this win. Opening the innings, India's Test wicketkeeper Wriddhiman hit seven boundaries and five huge sixes as he added 138 in 14.2 overs with Sayan Sekhar Mondal (50).
Wriddhiman, who has earlier opened for Bengal and Kings XI Punjab in the shortest format, punished former India U-19 left-armer Chama Milind, hitting him over the ropes on a number of occasion.
Mondal, who is back to opening for Bengal like his days in age-group cricket, played the perfect second fiddle scoring his runs in 41 balls with four boundaries and a six. He also got two wickets for 35 runs with his handy medium pace showing signs of being the ideal replacement of now retired laxmi Ratan Shukla.
Brief Scores
Bengal: 185/4 (Wriddhiman Saha 81, Sayan Sekhar Mondal 50, Chama Milind 2/45) beat Hyderabad: 124 (Akshath Reddy 32, Mohammed Shami 3/18, Pragyan Ojha 3/23, Sayan Sekhar Mondal 2/35).
Elsewhere
Haryana: 113 (Nitin 50; Antony 4/10) lose to TN: 116/1 (Anirudha 54 not out) by 9 wickets; AP: 95/9 (Srinivas 22; I Pandey 4/20) lost to MP: 96/5 (Harpreet 40*, Sohraab 25 not out; B Ayapaa 2/18) by 5 wickets; Odisha: 91 (A Yadav 33; SN Thakur 2/11) lost to Mumbai: 95/4 (A Tare 32; DR Behera 2/14) by 5 wickets; Maharashtra: 109/7 (K Jadhav 52; P Chawla 4/28) lost to UP: 113/ 3 (P Gupta 35; SM Kazi 1/18) Karnataka: 121/9 (Vinay Kumar 38; Raushan Raj 3/19; Deepak Rai 2/21) lost to Services: 122/7 (Anshul Gupta 27, Yashpal 25; K C Kariappa 2/20) by 3 wickets; Gujarat: 151/6 (R Bhatt 40, Patel 35) lost to HP: 152/5 (P Chopra 89 not out, P Dogra 36; R Kalaria 2/21) by 5 wickets; Punjab: 130/6 (Mandeep Singh 76*) lost to Rajasthan: 133/6 (Bishnoi 58, Dishant Yagnik 23*) by 4 wickets.