Delhi outplayed Jharkhand by five wickets for their first win in the Super league stage of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy, riding on Nitesh Rana’s (in pic) unbeaten half-century to pull things back after being precariously placed at one stage here on Saturday.
Put into bat, Jharkhand were restricted to 134 for seven in the allotted 20 overs. The side didn’t start impressively with opener Kumar Deobrat being dismissed for 13 by Delhi medium pacer Parwinder Awana at the Bandra-Kurla Complex.
Sumit Kumar, who walked in at number 3, fell for just one run, thanks to a splendid catch by Pawan Negi.
Saurabh Tiwary, who has played three ODIs, also went back to the pavilion quickly, managing just nine runs before being trapped in front of the wicket by Akash Sudan.
Ishank Jaggi and opener Virat Singh then stitched a 62-run partnership for the fourth wicket. The stand was broken by spinner Manan Sharma when Virat was caught by Nitesh Rana. In the next delivery Kaushal Singh gave an easy catch to Unmukt Chand duck with the score reading 108 for five.
Brief Scores
Jharkhand: 134/7 (Virat 45, Ishank Jaggi 42; Awana 3/28) lose to Delhi: 138/5 (Rana 60*; Aaron 3/27) by 5 wickets.
Kerala shock Baroda
Raiphi Gomez smashed an unbeaten 47 off 21 balls with three sixes and as many fours to guide Kerala to a shock four-wicket victory over two-time former champions Baroda in the Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament.
Gomez’s whirlwind, unbroken partnership of 45 off just 17 balls for the seventh wicket with Prashanth Padmanabhan, who remained not out on 17 after hitting two successive sixes off Munaf Patel in the 19th over, enabled Kerala to chase down Baroda’s total of 160 for 6, with two balls to spare, at the Wankhede Stadium.
Brief Scores
Baroda: 160/6 (K Devdhar 31, D Hooda 32, I Pathan 35 not out; P Prashanth 2 for 15) lose to Kerala: 164/6 (N Surendran 36, S Baby 44, R Gomez 47*; I Pathan 2/14).