Kanpur: Opener Karan Sharma and former UP captain Suresh Raina’s unbeaten partnership of 88 runs for the second wicket helped UP in beating Tripura by nine wickets and register its first win in Syed Mushtaq Ali T-20 cricket championship at Alur Stadium in Bengaluru on Saturday. Tripura batting first could muster only 122 runs on the board while losing six wickets in 20 overs.
UP managed to score the required runs in 13.1 overs for the loss of just one wicket. UP has 4 points and has just one match left. Punjab is leading group A with 16 points having won all league matches so far. Karnataka is at second position.
UP gave its star bowler Bhuwaneshwar Kumar rest and fielded Aquib Khan and the debutant picked one wicket. His new ball partner Mohsin Khan picked two wickets. The two bowlers struck three early blows and reduced Tripura to 3 for 24. Tripura could not recover from the early losses. Milind faced UP bowlers with some confidence and contributed 48 runs in 49 balls before falling prey to spinner Shanu Saini. He hit 2 boundaries and one six. RA Dey, MB Mura Singh and D B Debbarma stuck in the middle for some time but could not score freely. Saini picked two wickets.
Abhishek Goswami and vice-captain Karan Sharma opened UP’s innings. Goswami scored 12 runs in 20 balls before edging AS Sarkar to Debbarma. Karan Sharma and Suresh Raina scored freely from the beginning. Karan hammered 68 runs in 36 balls plundering six fours and four sixes. Raina hit 36 runs in 23 balls, scoring four boundaries and two sixes.
UP coach Gyanendra Pandey said this win would give confidence to the batsmen and boost the morale of the team. Another victory in the last match would be a big booster before the Ranji trophy matches.
Brief scores : Tripura: 122 for 6 (UU Bose 10, Milind 48, RA Dey 11, MB Mura Singh 17, DB Debbarma 14 not out, Aquib Khan 1 for 24, Mohsin Khan 2 for 20, Shanu Saini 2 for 16), UP:123 for 1 (Abhishek Goswami 12, Karan Sharma 68 not out, Suresh Raina 36 not out, AS Sarkar 1 for 29)