Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2018: Baroda edge past Maharashtra; Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh secure victories
Baroda hunted down 179 with more than an over to spare as captain Deepak Hooda led from the front with 57. His counterpart Rahul Tripathi had won the toss and batted first at Rajkot, with his openers getting off to a respectable start by notching up 34 in less than four overs. Vijay Zol hit 28 with five boundaries before Ruturaj Gaikwad and Tripathi combined to stitch together a crucial stand after Maharashtra were 56/2 in seven overs.
Gaikwad and Tripathi slammed 79 in under nine overs with the former batting more aggressively than his captain. He hit three fours and sixes in a knock of 52 from 37 balls, following which Tripathi was run out for 30 off 24.
The finishing touches to the innings were provided by number seven Ankit Bawne, who attacked well to remain unbeaten on 23 off just nine deliveries, which shot the total up to 178/6.
In reply, the hosts were in early trouble with the top three gone for only 29 on the board. Medium-pacer Domnic Muthuswami removed all three batsmen cheaply to leave it down to captain Hooda to drive the innings forward. The skipper did just that by slamming a quickfire 57 off 34 balls, an innings comprising four boundaries and two sixes.
Swapnil Singh gave him perfect company, though he had to retire hurt on 36; Vishnu Solanki joined the party to hammer 42 runs at a strike rate of 200, a knock featuring three sixes. Atit Sheth also batted well to get to 11* as Baroda achieved the target with nine balls and five wickets remaining.
In the other matches, Jammu & Kashmir and Services beat Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, respectively, in low-scoring matches.
Brief Scores:
Central Zone:
Rajasthan 132/4 in 18 overs (Garhwal 51*, Tajinder 26*; Wakhare 1/20) beat Vidarbha 131/8 in 20 overs (Satish 39, Wankhade 24; Ahmed 2/19) by 6 wickets
Uttar Pradesh 134/3 in 18 overs (Chaudhary 40, RK Singh 37*; Abhishek Sharma 2/25) beat Railways 132/8 in 20 overs (Rawat 35, A Yadav 32*; Rajpoot 3/30) by 7 wickets
West Zone:
Baroda 179/5 in 18.3 overs (Hooda 57, Solanki 42*; Muthuswami 3/24) beat Maharashtra 178/5 in 20 overs (Gaikwad 52, Tripathi 30; Sheth 3/21) by 5 wickets
Gujarat 137/2 in 18.1 overs (Panchal 76, Merai 35*; Sanandia 2/25) beat Saurashtra 133 in 19.2 overs (V Jadeja 48; Parmar 4/17, Chawla 2/24) by 8 wickets
North Zone:
Services 122/5 in 18.1 overs (Verma 25, Pachhara 23*; Abhinay 2/19) beat Himachal Pradesh 119/8 in 20 overs (R Dhawan 27*; Pathania 3/16, A Sinha 2/12) by 5 wickets
Jammu & Kashmir 122/6 in 18.4 overs (Wadhwan 70*, Dar 20*; H Patel 2/18) beat Haryana 116 in 19.2 overs (H Patel 28; Nazir 3/16, M Gupta 3/26) by 4 wickets