Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy: Baroda, Rajasthan Win, Enter Semis
An unbeaten 71 off 46 deliveries, including a match-winning last-ball six, by Vishnu Solanki, helped Baroda beat Haryana by eight wickets in a quarter-final match and storm into the semi-finals of the T20 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy on Wednesday. In the fourth quarter-final game in the evening, Rajasthan beat Bihar by 16 runs to enter the semi-finals.
In the semi-finals on Friday, Rajasthan will face Tamil Nadu while Punjab will take on Baroda. Ahmedabad will be the venue for both matches as well as the final, which is scheduled for January 31.
In the first quarter-final match on Wednesday, Baroda won the toss and sent Haryana in to bat. The Mohit Sharma-led team made 148 runs on the back of 49 from Himanshu Rana and 35 by Shivam Chauhan. Off-spinner Kartik Kakade took two wickets for seven runs in two overs.
In reply, Baroda got off to a decent start, scoring 33 in the first five overs. However, opener and wicketkeeper Smit Patel was dismissed in the sixth over.
Captain and opener Kedar Devdhar then added 68 for the second wicket with Solanki to put Baroda on track. While Devdhar was dismissed for 43 off 40 balls, Solanki remained unbeaten on 71 off 46 deliveries, and his knock contained five sixes and four fours.
India limited-overs leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal conceded 15 runs in four overs and picked the wicket of Patel. Baroda reached the target on the last ball of the 20th over.
In the second quarter-final match of the day, Mahipal Lomror's 78 off 37 balls helped Rajasthan win under floodlights. His innings helped Rajasthan score 164/5 wickets and Bihar was restricted to 148/4 wickets at the Motera Stadium.
Mangal Mahrour led the Bihar chase with an unbeaten 68 off 58 balls while Ravi Bishnoi, Chandrapal Singh and Aniket Choudhary all chipped in with a wicket each for Rajasthan.
Bihar, the only Plate team to qualify for the knockout stage of the tournament after topping their pool, were behind the required run rate for much of their chase. Rajasthan kept them in check in the last four overs of the chase, thus leaving them needing a whopping 27 runs from the final over. Vikash Yadav's six off the second last ball helped Bihar take 10 runs from the over.
Brief scores:
Haryana: 148/7 in 20 overs (H Rana 49, S Chauhan 35, K Kakade 2/7, A Sheth 1/27, B Pathan 1/34) lost to Baroda: 150/2 in 20 overs (V Solanki 71 not out, K Devdhar 43, Y Chahal 1/15, S Kumar 1/37) by 8 wkts.
Rajasthan: 164/5 in 20 overs (Mahipal Lomror 78 not out, Bharat Sharma 38; Suraj Kashyap 2/28) beat Bihar: 148/4 in 20 overs (Mangal Mahrour 68 not out, Vikash Yadav 27 not out; Chandrapal Singh 1/21) by 16 runs.