Baroda prevail in high-scorer; Naik 70 thumps Gujarat

Group C

Baroda vs Mumbai, Rajkot

Urvil Patel (50), Deepak Hooda (66) and Krunal Pandya (44) all made useful scores while Atit Sheth and Lukman Meriwala shared six wickets between them to help Baroda secure a thrilling 13-run win over Mumbai in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, on Sunday (January 7). Mumbai could muster only 197 for 8, in pursuit of 211.

While chasing down a massive target, Jay Bista (36) and Siddhesh Lad (82) shared a rollicking stand of 78 off 46 balls for the second wicket to put Mumbai in a good position. However, they lost their next five wickets for 76 runs to slide to 155 for 6. It was Sheth who landed the decisive blow by dismissing Lad. Shivam Dubey (33 off 14 balls) played a fine hand down the order. However, with the required run-rate escalating to over 15, he too fell, with Meriwala picking up the scalp. Sheth bagged the wicket of Shardul Thakur in the final over to seal the game for Baroda.

Brief scores: Baroda 210/3 in 20 overs (Deepak Hooda 66, Urvil Patel 50; Tushar Deshpande 2-38) beat Mumbai 197/8 in 20 overs (Siddhesh Lad 82; Lukman Meriwala 3-29, Atit Sheth 3-31) by 13 runs.

Gujarat vs Maharashtra, Rajkot

A Nikhil Naik blitz helped Maharashtra begin their Zonal T20 League with a nervy win over Gujarat in Rajkot. Maharashtra were initially rattled in the run chase when they were reduced to 49 for 4 in the eighth over. Piyush Chawla was the wrecker-in-chief as he bowled well in the middle overs to keep Gujarat on top. Naik though, put on a one-man show and carted the bowlers around the park to end up making an unbeaten 70 off just 37 deliveries.

Earlier in the day, Gujarat made a disastrous start as well as Domnic Muthuswami picked up two wickets in the same over to hurt the home side. By the seventh over, half of the side were back in the pavilion before Axar Patel and Chiraj Gandhi rescued Gujarat. While Axar ended up making 38, Gandhi scored an unbeaten half-century but their total of 151 still ended up being a little short as the visitors went past the finishing line with three balls left.

Brief scores: Gujarat 151/8 in 20 overs (Chirag Gandhi 61*, Axar Patel 38; Domnic Muthuswami 4-27) lost to Maharashtra 154/6 in 19.3 overs (Nikhil Naik 70*, Ruturaj Gaikwad 26; Piyush Chawla 3-27) by four wickets