Baroda, Delhi, Mumbai and MP qualify for SMAT semis
Lukman Meriwala's three-wicket over set up Baroda's 41-run win over Bengal at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium on Wednesday (December 11). Hardik Pandya also picked three wickets as Bengal fell short in chase of Baroda's 172/7 despite Shahbaz Ahmed's valiant efforts.
Left-arm pacer Meriwala took out in-form opener Karan Lal (bowled), captain Sudip Gharami (LBW) and Writtick Chatterjee (caught and bowled) in the space of four balls to leave Bengal tottering at 31/3 in the fourth over. That became 31/4 in the next over as Abishek Porel fell to Atit Sheth. Ritwik Chowdhury pulled Bengal out of the quagmire briefly by taking on the Baroda pacers. Krunal Pandya brought out some of his defensive bowling in the middle overs, much to the delight of the small crowd that gathered to watch him and chant 'RCB... RCB'. Ritwik and Shahbaz Ahmed's counterattack lasted until the half-way stage, when Hardik dismissed the former for an 18-ball 29. A couple of overs later, Hardik ran back from mid-off to take a catch and dismiss Pradipta Pramanik.
Shahbaz Ahmed led the fight to keep Bengal in the chase, and even survived a contentious LBW call, much to the chagrin of Krunal Pandya. Hardik however, came back to pick two wickets in three balls - including that of Mohammed Shami, Bengal's batting hero from the previous game, for a two-ball duck. Shahbaz kept swinging through the line and connecting, and got to his half-century in the process with successive sixes but couldn't take his team past the finish line. He fell for a 36-ball 55 and Bengal folded for 131 in 18 overs.
With that, Mohammed Shami's SMAT campaign came to an end, with no concrete indications yet to suggest he will fly to Australia for the remainder of the Test series.
A blistering unbeaten innings of 73 off just 33 balls from Anuj Rawat followed by a collective bowling performance saw Delhi upstage UP by 19 runs to make it to the semifinals. The margin of victory is deceiving as the chase was never really on except for a brief period when Priyam Garg (54 off 34) and Sameer Rizvi (26 off 16) got going through a partnership. However, once that stand was broken, things went off the cliff for UP and it took a few lusty blows from Bhuvneshwar Kumar towards the end to narrow the margin of defeat.
The limelight was stolen by Rawat's blitz that propelled Delhi's innings from a possible 170-ish score to past the 190-run mark. The left-hander relished the true nature of the surface and peppered the short boundary for fun, smashing as many as seven sixes in his knock. His pyrotechnics were the perfect finish that Delhi needed after their openers Priyansh Arya (44 off 31) and Yash Dhull (42 off 34) had set the foundation with a 81-run stand. The former was the aggressor and looked fluent from the get-go while Dhull overcame a scratchy start to then find his range.
Skipper Ayush Badoni (25 off 18) couldn't quite produce his typical fireworks but Rawat compensated for that with a game-defining knock. UP did well to pull things back a touch in the last three overs as 200 looked a formality at one point of Rawat's carnage. However, the target of 193 still needed a proper batting effort and UP's batters couldn't come to the party. Veteran Ishant Sharma bowled a spicy new-ball spell which also included the big wicket of the in-form Karan Sharma in the first over of the innings. The other opener, Aryan Juyal, was all at sea against Delhi's hard-length plans with the bounce putting him under pressure.
It meant that UP didn't get a brisk Powerplay that they needed but Garg soon found his mojo, even as the big guns Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh failed to deliver. Those twin blows severely dented UP's chances as they needed one of them to bat deep with Garg. The brief partnership between Garg and Rizvi promised a lot, and also showed that the score was chaseable but a poor start followed by timely breakthroughs meant that UP never ever in the game during the chase. As much as they'd rue their batting, the fielding was also sloppy with a lot of misfields that leaked bonus runs for the opposition.
An early blitz by Arpit Gaud (29-ball 42) and a steady hand by Venkatesh Iyer (33-ball 38*) helped Madhya Pradesh over the line in the quarterfinal clash against Saurashtra. Chasing 174 for a win, Madhya Pradesh overhauled the total with six wickets in hand and four balls to spare.
In a neatly paced chase, Gaud took the attacking approach, Ankur Panwar was dismissed in the last over of the powerplay for a run-a-ball 11. Subhranshu Senapati got going early, with a couple of boundaries in his first over, but after Gaud was dismissed, Madhya Pradesh slowed down briefly in their approach. Venkatesh, especially was slow to begin with, taking sveen deliveries for his first two runs. But he became the stabilizer of the run chase, as the batters around him exploded freely. He smashed a couple of boundaries against Prerak Mankad in the 13th over to push his scoring rate.
In his next over, Mankad tripped in his run-up, was injured and had to leave the field. That helped Madhya Pradesh's cause as Sammar Gujjar, who filled in for him, ended up getting carted for 14 runs in only five deliveries. Rajat Patidar cut loose and raced away to an 18-ball 28. Soon after his dismissal, Harpreet Bhatia took over the mantle of hitting the big shots and his brisk 9-ball 22 was enough to aid MP over the line comfortably.
Earlier, MP struck early after electing to field, with Tripuresh Singh striking off the second third ball of the innings. A brief flourish provided by Harvik Desai and Prerak Mankad too was nipped in the bud in the Powerplay following a 31-run stand. The 36-run stand between Vishwarajsinh Jadeja and Chirag Jani provided a much-needed platform for them to flourish in the latter half. Jadeja was undone by a bouncer from Rahul Batham, which he top-edged to deep square leg.
On an easy-paced wicket, Jani unfurled his big hits. He duly put away the pacers and spinners with ease, but MP kept chipping away with wickets. Venkatesh, who bowled with a bit of nip, cleaned up Sammar Gujjar as he missed the wrong line and then had Ruchir Ahir caught in the deep. Even amidst the struggles of the Saurashtra batters, Jani's solo act (45-ball 80) ensured the side reached a respectable 173/7.
Led by Ajinkya Rahane's second consecutive half-century, Mumbai cruised to a six-wicket win over Vidarbha to book a place in the semifinals, where they will meet Baroda. Rahane cracked a 45-ball 84, which included 10 boundaries and three sixes to help Mumbai overcome the massive 222-run target with five balls to spare.
Mumbai were off to a blazing start in the powerplay with Prithvi Shaw and Rahane 82 runs in that period. Shaw fell soon after that and Mumbai slowed down for a bit through the middle overs. Shreyas Iyer and Suryakumar yadav also couldn't make any noteworthy contribution, with the latter overdoing his sweep shots against left-arm ended up getting trapped legbefore eventually.
Nonetheless, Rahane ensured that the scoring didn't fall beyond their reach - at it's peak touching 13 in the last seven overs, with even Shivam Dube struggling to take down the spinners. However, once Rahane departed, Dube brought to fore his big-hitting skills, taking down Dipesh Parwani in the 18th over. However, it was Suryash Shedge, who smashed 23 runs in five balls in the previous over, which proved to be decisive in the end, turning an evenly-matched contest till then in Mumbai's favour.
The equation eventually came down to run-a-ball in the last over, which Shedge wrapped up with a six straight down the ground.
Earlier in the day, Mumbai elected to field after winning the toss. Atharva Taide and Karun nair made an emphatic start. They were especially severe against Shardul Thakur, smashing the pacer for 28 runs in his first two overs. The duo added 60 runs in nly 5.1 overs before Mumbai got their first breakthrough. Even as they struck twice in quick succession, Apoorva Wankhede and Shubham Dubey ensured that the carnage continued. Taide and Wakhade added 91 runs in only 8 overs before Dubey took over and blazed away to a 19-ball 43, which included smashing Mohit Awasthi for 24 runs in the last over.
Despite posting a massive 221 for 6, it eventually proved too little in the end.
| Share | Tweet |
