MUMBAI: Mumbai registered its fourth win in the league stage of the Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy here on Tuesday after beating Pondicherry by 27 runs.
The title favourites have beaten Mizoram, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh in their first three games.
Asked to bat, Mumbai rode on a blazing half-century by skipper Suryakumar Yadav (57 off 37 balls) to post a decent 171/6 on the board.
Their in-form openers Jay Bista (29 off 21 balls) and Aditya Tare (20 off 14 balls) conjured 48 runs for the first wicket before Bista was cleaned up by R Vinay Kumar (1-44).
Tare too fell in quick succession as the hosts were reeling at 52-2.
But then Surya, who is scoring runs in every game, took the responsibility and steadied the ship in company of Shreyas Iyer (19) as the duo stitched a 49-run stand for the third wicket.
Playing his natural aggressive game, Surya tore apart the Pondicherry attack, striking six fours and two sixes.
After Shreyas departed, Surya got an able partner in Siddhesh Lad, who took made a quick fire 39 off 22 balls, with four boundaries and two other hits over the fence.
Their respective knocks ensured that Mumbai crossed the 170-run mark.
Chasing 172, Pondicherry had a pathetic start and were reeling at 29-2.
But then Parag Dogra (45 off 35 balls) and opener Arun Karthik (27 balls) tried to resurrect the innings with 28-run stand, before Karthik was dimissed by Shivam Dube.
Anand Subramanian (39 off 31 balls) and Dogra gave a scare to Mumbai, but their bowlers held their nerves to eke out a win.
Pacer Tushar Deshpande (2-29) and Shams Mulani (2-25) shared the spoils.
There are no matches on Wednesday and the action resumes on Thursday.
In the first game at the Wankhede Stadium, Meghalaya stunned Assam by four wickets.
Chasing a modest 109, Meghalaya rode on a blazing 42 off 23 balls by wicket-keeper Punit Bisht, who smashed six fours and a lone six.
The Meghalaya middle-order capitalized on the 62-run opening stand between Bisht and Raj Biswa (25) and chased the target with seven balls to spare.
In the first match of the BKC, Madhya Pradesh defeated Mizoram by 86 runs.
Opener Taruwar Kohli's gritty half-century went in vain as Mizoram crawled to 127/2 in pursuit of 214-run target.
In the second game at BKC, Haryana defeated Bengal by five wickets as they chased the 123-run target with 17 balls to spare.
India spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, who came back to the Haryana team after national duty, returned with figures of 1-21.
Brief Scores:
umbai 171/6 (Suryakumar Yadav 57, Siddhesh Lad 39; Sagar Trivedi 4-29) beat Pondicherry 144/7 (Paras Dogra 45, Anand Subramanian 39; Shams Mulani 2-25) by 27 runs.
Brief Scores:
At BKC: Madhya Pradesh 213/5 (Rishabh Singh Chouhan 63, Ashutosh Sharma 58; Lalbiakvela Guite 2-31) beat Mizoram 127/2 (Taruwar Kohli 81, Lalhma Ngaiha 22; Ankit Sharma 1-21) by 86 runs.
At Wankhede: Assam 108/7 (Sibsankar Roy 50, Abu Nechim 26 not out; Sanjay Yadav 2-14, Raj Biswa 2-14) lost to Meghalaya 110/6 (Punit Bisht 42, Raj Biswa 25; Sarupam Purkayastha 3-17) by four wickets.
At BKC: Bengal 122/8 (Shreevats Goswami 30, Shahbaz Ahamad 26; Ashish Hooda 2-19) lost to Haryana 126/5 (Harshal Patel 35, Rohit Sharma 28 not out; Shahbaz Ahamad 2-19) by five wickets.