Lucknow, Nov 6: Ruturaj Gaikwad scored his third straight half-century (81 off 47 balls) to power Maharashtra to a 27-run win over Odisha in an Elite Group A match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy here on Saturday.
After scoring fifties against TN and Punjab, the stylish Gaikwad toyed with the Odisha attack and shared a 131-run partnership for the second wicket with India-discard Kedar Jadhav, who made 55 from 35 balls.
The quickfire partnership which came in less than 12 overs put Maharashtra on track for a big score as they put on board 183 for eight. Gaikwad played his trademark elegant drives and also played the big shots with ease. His dismissal in the 15th over came as some relief for the Odisha bowlers as the rest of the batters could not continue in same vein.
In reply, Odisha lost skipper Rajesh Dhupar when the score was 18 and save for a 56-run second wicket partnership between Anshy Rath (34) and Subhranshu Senapathi (27), the batters could not take the fight to the Maharashtra bowlers.
Left-arm medium-pacer Divyang Himganekar was the best bowler for Maharashtra, returning figures of 4 for 35. In another group match, defending champions Tamil Nadu chased down 130 in 16.1 overs against Pondicherry to register their third consecutive win.
Left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore in particular, never allowed them to get going. He picked up a hat-trick in the final over of the Pondicherry innings. His victims were Fabid Ahmed, Iqlas Naha and Subhoth Bhati. Ragu (32), Fabid Ahmed (27) and captain D Rohit (25) made contributions but the team could only muster 129 for 8 in 20 overs.
Left-handed opener C Hari Nishaanth powered his way to an unbeaten 75 off 49 balls as Tamil Nadu overhauled the target in the 17th over.
Brief scores:
Pondicherry 129 for 8 in 20 overs (Ragu 32, Fabid Ahmed 27, R Sai Kishore 4/28 (including hat-trick)) lost to Tamil Nadu 130 for 2 in 16.1 overs (C Hari Nishaanth 75 not out, B Aparajith 28, Sagar P Udheshi 2/22) by eight wickets.
TN: 4 points, Pondicherry: 0.
Maharashtra 183 for 8 in 20 overs (Ruturaj Gaikwad 81, Kedar Jadhav 55, Debrata Pradhan 3/37, Bikash Rout 2/29) beat Odisha 156 all out in 18.5 overs (Anshy Rath 34, Abhishek Raut 29, Divyang Himganekar 4/35, Ashay Palkar 3/13) by 27 runs.
Maharashtra: 4 points, Odisha: 0.
Punjab 197 for 4 in 20 overs (Prabhsimran Singh 119 not out (61 balls, 11X4, 6X6), Shubman Gill 40, Abhishek Sharma 25) beat Goa 116 for 8 in 20 overs (Suyah S Prabhudesai 30, Siddharth Kaul 3/21, Harpreet Brar 2/12, Mayank Markande 2/29) by 81 runs.
Punjab: 4 points, Goa: 0.
