BHUBANESWAR: Gujarat won the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy national T20 championship for the second time in three years, beating Punjab by two wickets on Tuesday. Four wickets by Rohit Dahiya and an unbeaten half-century by Smit Patel helped Gujarat win the final with a ball to spare.
Punjab fought hard to take match down to the wire. It was self-belief that helped the Manpreet Juneja-led Gujarat come up trumps. They ended up winning eight of their nine matches.
Punjab lost half the battle when they were restricted to 117 for nine after being put in. Openers Jaskarnaveer Singh and Ravi Inder Singh raised 23 runs in 4.4 overs, but then, the entire innings disintegrated.
For Gujarat, the 21-year-old Smit’s unbeaten 50 (49b, 3x4, 1x6) and two 30-plus stands saw them home.
Brief scores: Punjab 117/9 in 20 ovs (Ravi Inder Singh 30; Rohit Dahiya 4-15, Jesal Karia 2-28) lost to Gujarat 123/8 in 19.5 ovs (Smit Patel 50 no; Taruwar Kohli 2-20, Siddharth Kaul 2-28).