Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Day 4 Roundup: Irfan Pathan, Parthiv Patel shine; Saurashtra and TN lose
All-round performances by former and current India all-rounders ensured Baroda romped to a convincing win over Goa, who had initially won the toss and elected to field. After a solid start from their openers, Hardik Pandya and Irfan Pathan came to the crease and started belting the bowlers around.
Pathan, in particular, was simply unstoppable as he smashed an unbeaten 49 off just 29 balls, a knock which included three sixes and three fours. Set a challenging 155 for victory, Goa were never in the game as the two all-rounders once again came to the party, this time with the ball.
The pair both picked up two wickets each as no Goa batsman apart from Deepraj Gaonkar was able to stay in the crease for long enough to chase a challenging, but not entirely impossible target.
Brief Scores: Goa 82 (15.4) (Gaonkar 48; I Pathan 2/19) lost to Baroda 154/2 (20) (I Pathan 49*, Pandya 38*) by 72 runs.
Despite Jaidev Unadkat's all-round effort, Kerala cruised to their fourth-straight win of the competition. After being asked to bat, the hosts put up a competitive 165 thanks to a fifty from Rohan Prem and 43 from Sachin Baby, while Unadkat was the pick of the bowlers with 3/23. Unfortunately for the visitors, he was the pick of the batsmen as well, as their top order crumbled to give the hosts top spot of Group B.
Brief Scores: Kerala 165/9 (20) (Prem 56; Unadkat 3/23) beat Saurashtra 115/9 (20) (Unadkat 32; Krishnan 3/11) by 50 runs.
Harbhajan Singh's decision to win the toss and field paid dividends as Punjab restricted Jharkhand to just 104, before cruising to victory with 15 balls to spare. The captain led from the front and finished with figures of 4-0-16-2. Despite losing Manan Vohra early, Punjab comfortably reached the target thanks to an unbeaten 60 by opener Pargrat Singh.
Brief Scores: Jharkhand 104/9 (20) (V Singh 41; Harbhajan Singh 2/16) lost to Punjab 105/3 (17.3) (Pargat Singh 60*) by 7 wickets.
Gujarat moved to the top of Group A after they secured a comfortable win over Bengal in Nagpur, thanks to another fifty from Parthiv Patel. After the bowlers, led by Jasprit Bumrah's 3/16 had bundled out Bengal for just 101, Gujarat's openers ‘ led by captain Parthiv secured the win with 49 balls to spare.
Brief Scores: Bengal 101 (19.2) (Dinda 22; Bumrah 3/16) lost to Gujarat 104/2 (11.5) (Parthiv Patel 52, PK Panchal 24) by 8 wickets.
An all-round performance by captain Hanuma Vihari ensured Hyderabad consigned Virender Sehwag-led Haryana to their thirs-successive defeat of the tournament. After winning the toss and choosing to bat first, Hyderabad put on 173/8 thanks to forties from Vihari and Akshath Reddy. After a decent start, Haryana were still in with a chance, but Vihari dismissed the dangerous Sehwag and Mohit Hooda for 9 and 20 respectively, to ensure his side picked up their second win.
Brief Scores: Haryana 138/7 (20) (Saini 30; Vihari 2/13) lost to Hyderabad 173/8 (20) (Vihari 44; Chahal 3/43) by 35 runs.
Other Results on Day 4:
Brief Scores: Delhi 50/2 (9.1) (Chand 29) beat Assam 44 (12.1) (Bhati 4/9, Shivam Sharma 3/7) by 8 wickets.
Tamil Nadu 150/8 (20) (Aparajith 41, Satish 32) lost to Vidarbha 154/3 (18.3) (JM Sharma 73, F Fazal 45) by 7 wickets.
Jammu & Kashmir 119 (19.1) (B Singh 33; Majumder 3/17) lost to Tripura 121/6 (18.2) (Singha 45; Rasool 3/25) by 4 wickets.
Madhya Pradesh 104/4 (16.2) (Saxena 37*, Z Ali 36) beat Railways 103 (20) (Saurabh 28; Ashwin Das 4/10) by 6 wickets.