Gujarat batsmen made short work of their modest chase to outplay Andhra Pradesh by seven wickets and set up the title clash with Punjab in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Twenty20 cricket tournament, here on Sunday. Chasing 128 for a win in the Group A Super league knockout, Gujarat rode on opener Smit Patel’s 51 and Rujul Bhatt’s unbeaten 44 to gallop to their target in 17.3 overs. Earlier put into bat, Mohammad Kaif led by example with a 46-ball 58 but were done in by an excellent effort from the Gujarat pacers to be bowled out for 127 in 19.5 overs.
Naren Reddy (20) and Jyothi Sai Krishna (21) also chipped in with useful scores but Gujarat medium-pacers Rush Kalaria 3/17, Chintan Gaja 2/15 and Rohit Dahiya 3/24 shared eight wickets between them to wreck the Andhra batting.
Brief Scores
Andhra: 127 (Mohammad Kaif 58, Jyothi Sai Krishna 21; Rush Kalaria 3/17, Rohit Dahiya 3/24 lose to Gujarat: 128/3 (Smit Patel 51, Rujul Bhatt 44 not out; KV Sasikanth 2/24) by 7 wickets.
Pun beat rajasthan
Cuttack: Pacers Siddarth Kaul and Mandeep Singh bagged three wickets each as Punjab thrashed Rajasthan by six wickets to enter the final of Syed Mushtaq Ali Twenty20 cricket tournament here on Sunday. Electing to bat, Rajasthan were bowled out for 101 in 19 overs thanks to a fine bowling display by Kaul 3/11 and Mandeep 3/21.
Mandeep followed his career-best figures of 3 for 21 with a 29 off 18 balls as Punjab chased down the target with 20 balls to spare by reaching 102 for 4 in 16.4 overs. Rajasthan were rattled early and were reduced to 25 for 3, with Shubek Gill dismissing Ankit lamba and Arjit Gupta in the space of three balls early in the innings.
Sourabh Chauhan (13), Ashok Menaria (18), Rajesh Bishnoi (16), Puneet Yadav (12) all got starts, but none managed a substantial contribution, as Rajasthan slumped to 96 for 8, with Mandeep dismantling the middle order. Though both perished at the brink of victory, Singh (27 not out) and Himanshu Chawla (12 not out) completed the formalities by the 17th over.
Brief Scores
Rajasthan: 101 (Ashok Menaria 18, RK Bishnoy Sr 16; Mandeep Singh 3/21, Siddharth Kaul 3/11) lose to Punjab: 102/4 (Mandeep Singh 29, Gurkeerat Mann 27 not out) by 6 wickets.