Central Zone
SYED MUSHTAQ ALI 2017-18
MP pick up third win to stay alive
Ishwar Pandey ended with figures of 4-0-15-1 in MP's win. © BCCI
A disciplined bowling effort, led by Avesh Khan and Ishwar Pandey, helped Madhya Pradesh secure a 24-run victory as they defended a total of 135 to end the group stage on a winning note. While they have finished with 12 points after three wins and are at the third spot, with their hopes of qualification riding on other results going their way. Vidarbha are currently second with the same number of points but a superior Net Run Rate. On the other hand, Railways suffered their fourth loss in as many games to be condemned to the bottom of the table.
Medium pacers Amit Mishra and Anureet Singh picked up five wickets between and also did not concede too many as they kept the MP batsmen in check. However, thanks to Harpreet Singh's 50 and Sohraab Dhaliwal's 31, MP managed to finish with a total of 135, albeit not an ideal score for T20s. Railways, though, were behind the eight ball early in their innings with their top three contributing only 16 runs while consuming as many as 16 deliveries. That only Mahesh Rawat (38 off 31) had a strike rate in excess of 100 underlined Railways' struggle as they ended up way short of the target.
Brief scores: Madhya Pradesh 135/7 in 20 overs (Harpreet Singh 50, Sohraab Dhaliwal 31; Amit Mishra 3-17) beat Railways 111/6 in 20 overs (Mahesh Rawat 38, Arindam Ghosh 26; Avesh Khan 2-16) by 24 runs.
Uttar Pradesh remained in the hunt for a spot in the next round with a 6-run win over second-placed Vidarbha.
Vidarbha managed to restrict the hosts to just 137 after being asked to bowl first. For UP, it was opener Shivam Chaudhary's measured fifty that held the innings together. In the chase, Vidarbha never managed to get ahead of UP, with pacer Amit Mishra striking four times.
Despite the loss, Vidarbha were sitting pretty thanks to a good net run rate. Uttar Pradesh though can still get past Vidarbha if they manage a big win in their final encounter against Chattisgarh.
Brief Scores: Uttar Pradesh 137/8 (Shivam Chaudhary 51; Shrikant Wagh 3/28, Ravikumar Thakur 3/29) beat Vidarbha 131/8 (Apoorv Wankhade 33, Faiz Fazal 32; Amit Mishra 4/10) by six runs
North Zone
Shivam Chauhan's half-century and Rahul Tewatia's unbeaten 16-ball 29 helped Haryana secure a thrilling four-wicket win against Services to throw open the qualification hopes in the North Zone group. While Delhi are placed well atop the table with 12 points from four games, five teams have eight points which sets up an interesting finish to the group, although Services have still managed to retain their second spot thanks to their good NRR.
Asked to bat, Services were reduced to 40 for 5 by the end of the powerplay. That they finished with 140 for 8 was thanks to Nakul Sharma's 42 and the support he received from the lower order batsmen. Haryana too were left in early trouble in the chase, managing only 39 runs when they lost their third wicket in the eighth over. Chauhan, though, managed to get the team back on track and received good support from Rajat Paliwal and Tewatia, with whom he was involved in stands of 52 and 42 respectively. Tewatia remained unbeaten till the end to help his team across the line off the penultimate delivery.
Brief scores: Services 140/8 in 20 overs (Nakul Sharma 42, Diwesh Pathania 27; Ajit Chahal 3-26, Jayant Yadav 2-13) lost to Haryana 141/6 in 19.5 overs (Shivam Chauhan 54, Rahul Tewatia 29*; Diwesh Pathania 3-27) by 4 wickets.
In a high-scoring encounter, Punjab pipped Himachal Pradesh by 11 runs to remain in contention for a spot in the Super League. Opting to bat, Punjab racked up a massive 211 thanks to a 108-run opening stand between Manan Vohra and Mandeep Singh. Gurkeerat Singh Mann provided the finishing touches with a quick 36 as well. In reply, Himachal Pradesh got off to a quick start and were in the game for a large part but some tight bowling saw them finish well short of the target.
The victory helped Punjab finish their quota of matches with 12 points and will have to wait on the result of the match between Delhi and Services to see if they can qualify. If Services win their last encounter though, Punjab will still be out by net run rate.
Brief Scores: Punjab 211/4 (Manan Vohra 74, Mandeep Singh 46) beat Himachal Pradesh192/5 (Prashant Chopra 52, Nikhil Gangta 52; Mayank Markande 2/35) by 19 runs
© Cricbuzz
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