BHUBANESWAR: Hosts Odisha’s hope for a berth in the final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 tournament went up in smoke as they suffered a five-wicket defeat in their last Group-B Super League match against Hyderabad at DRIEMS Cricket Stadium in Tangi (Cuttack) on Saturday. This was the second defeat in four matches for Odisha and they ended their campaign with eight points.
Electing to bat, East Zone champions Odisha were all out for 153 with five balls to go. Though most of their top-order batsmen, barring Aravind Singh, got starts, none could stay long for a half-century. Leading his team’s bowling attack by example, Hyderabad captain Hanuma Vihari scalped three wickets for 21 runs. Complimenting Vihari, medium-pacer Ravi Kiran too returned with a three-wicket haul.
Hyderabad then rode on a 33-ball 49 by Tanmay Agarwal and a 17-ball unbeaten 37 by Akash Bhandari to clinch a last-ball victory.
Win For Mumbai
West Zone league toppers Mumbai registered their first win after two defeats, beating Rajasthan by 33 runs in Group B at DRIEMS Stadium earlier in the day. Three players put up impressive performance in the win.
This was the first defeat in three matches for Rajasthan, who, however, continued to share the lead with Odisha and Punjab with eight points in their kitty.
Gujarat Excel
West Zone runners-up Gujarat maintaining their winning run in Group A, scripting a five-wicket win over Central Zone champions Madhya Pradesh here at KIIT Cricket Ground earlier in the day. This was the third successive win for Gujarat and they emerged sole leaders with 12 points.
Chasing 150 for victory, Gujarat rode on a 33-ball 60 by Priyank Panchal and his 74-run stand for the third wicket with Manpreet Juneja to overhaul the target with seven balls to spare.
Jaggi Ton in Vain
Ishank Jaggi’s unbeaten 108 went in vain as Jharkhand lost to Andhra by six wickets in another Group A match at KIIT Cricket Ground.
Brief scores: Odisha 153 in 19.1 ovs (Biplab Samantaray 33; Hanuma Vihari 3-21, Ravi Kiran 3-31, Chama Milind 2-21) lost to Hyderabad 154/5 in 20 ovs (Tanmay Agarwal 49) by 5 wkts; Mumbai 154/4 in 20 ovs (Jay Bista 81 no; Pankaj Singh 2-28) bt Rajasthan 121 in 18 ovs (Rajesh Bishnoi 33; Javed Khan 3-15, Rohan Raje 3-15, Sidak Singh 2-7) by 33 runs; Madhya Pradesh 149/4 in 20 ovs (Zafar Ali 70 no; Rohit Dahiya 2-33) lost to Gujarat 252/5 in 18.5 ovs (Priyank Panchal 60; Jatin Saxena 2-30) by 5 wkts; Jharkhand 159/3 in 20 ovs (Ishank Jaggi 108 no) lost to Andhra 162/4 in 16.4 ovs (Prashanth Kumar 51) by 6 wkts.