Shahbaz Ahmed produced a brilliant all-round performance to power Bengal to a dominating 43-run win over Tamil Nadu in their Elite Group E match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy here on Sunday.
The 27-year-old from Haryana led Bengal’s aggressive batting display with an unbeaten 27-ball 42 laced with three fours and two maximums to take the team to 164 for six after opting to bat.
He then returned to scalp three crucial wickets with his left-arm spin to completely derail Tamil Nadu’s run chase as they ended with 121 for 9 in their stipulated 20 overs. In another match, Odisha pulled off a one-wicket win over Chandigarh in a last-ball thriller, riding on Rakesh Pattnaik’s unbeaten 61 off 24 balls. Sent in to bat, Chandigarh posted 179 for 6 with Bhagmender Lather making 59 off 41 balls with seven maximums and Raj Bawa slamming 40 off 17 balls.
In reply, Odisha was down 5 for 2 but they recovered from the disastrous start with Shantanu Mishra (39) and Subhranshu Senapati (47) playing a big role in keeping them in the hunt. Pattnaik then smashed seven boundaries and four sixes to take Odisha home in the last ball.
At Indore, after their first two games were abandoned because of rain, Andhra defeated Nagaland by five wickets Ashwin Hebbar top-scoring with 51. Ricky Bhui (36) and impact player SK Rasheed (37 n.o) too played their part to give Andhra their first win of the tournament. Earlier, Shrikant Mundhe scored an unbeaten 91 off 50 balls to power Nagaland to 169/4 in 20 overs. Rongsen Jonathan scored 45.
In Group C, Pacer Vidhwath Kaverappa bagged a career-best 5/11 as fancied Karnataka recorded a convincing 34-run win over Jammu & Kashmir. Batting first, Karnataka were restricted to 147 for seven in the stipulated 20 overs, but the total proved to be more than enough as Jammu & Kashmir were bowled out for 113 in 18.2 overs. Karnataka remains second in the group.
In the same group, Services handed Kerala their first defeat. Chasing 149 to go top of the table, Kerala were hampered by the regular loss of wickets and ended up six short of Service’s total. Sachin Baby (36) and Sanju Samson (30) were the two to get a decent start for Kerala as they slipped to the third spot.
At Jaipur, Tilak Verma continued his good form as he top-scored with 62 to help Hyderabad beat Tripura by five wickets off the last ball. In another match, Delhi handed Pondicherry their fourth successive loss as they won by seven wickets. Chasing a target of 169, Yash Dhull made an unbeaten 71 off 46 balls to
take Delhi home with four balls to spare.