CHENNAI: Karnataka posted another resounding win over Services to stay atop Group C in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20s on Thursday. Vijaykumar Vyshak was the star with the ball, taking three wickets for 24 runs. Karnataka and Haryana are tied on 20 points and their face-off on Saturday will see who makes the quarterfinals.
In the same group, Kerala also posted a comfortable 62-run win over Jammu and Kashmir, to keep their hopes alive. While the table-toppers from the five groups make the quarterfinals directly, the second-placed teams will be ranked 6-10 and will feature in the pre-quarterfinals. The 11th and last team would be the best (based on wins/NRR) from the remaining lot, which means even a team that finishes third in a group has a chance to make the pre-quarters.
In Group E, Tamil Nadu also kept their hopes of making it to the pre-quarters alive with a 56-run victory over Chandigarh. After captain Baba Aparajith’s 67 powered TN to 161/6 at Lucknow, the bowlers did the rest to restrict Chandigarh to 105.
However, Chhattisgarh who are in the third position with 14 points, have one more game in hand against Odisha and if they win that, they will overtake TN courtesy of the head-to-head results. With 18 points, Bengal are already in the quarterfinals. At Jaipur, Delhi defeated Goa by six wickets to remain second in Group B behind Punjab. Delhi are lined up to face Tripura in their last fixture.
Brief scores: Group B at Jaipur: Puducherry 86/9 in 20 ovs (Kaul 5/12) lost to Punjab 87/2 in 10 ovs; Goa 131/6 in 20 ovs (Gaonkar 40) lost to Delhi 133/4 in 17 ovs (Rana 49 n.o, Dhull 46); Hyderabad 132/9 (Tilak 48, Karan 3/19) lost to UP 133/3 in 19.1 ovs (Juyal 71 n.o).
Group C at Mohali: Services 129/8 in 20 ovs (Pachhara 35, Vyshak 3/24) lost to Karnataka 130/2 in 18.1 ovs (Chethan 61 n.o); Kerala 184/4 in 20 ovs (Baby 62, Samson 61) bt J&K 122 in 19 ovs (Asif 3/15, Thampi 3/21).
Group D at Indore: Andhra 129/9 in 20 ovs (Gaja 3/33) lost to Gujarat 132/5 in 18 ovs (Panchal 59).
Group E at Lucknow: Tamil Nadu 161/6 in 20 ovs (Aparajith 67, Sandeep 3/14) bt Punjab 105 in 18.1 ovs (Varun 3/24); Jharkhand 188/5 (Ishan 102 n.o, Sa 3/24) bt Odisha 117 in 19.2 ovs (Mishra 54, Nadeem 3/21).