Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Day 6 Roundup: Yuvraj, Pujara fifties in vain; Irfan Pathan, Amit Mishra sparkle

Yuvraj’s fifty was in vain

Irfan Pathan’s composed 28 kept Baroda's unbeaten start alive as they beat Andhra in a low-scoring affair. Andhra decision to win the toss and choose to  bat looked to be the right one but their batsmen apart from opener KS Bharat did their captain any favour as they crumbled like a deck of cards.

Thanks to tight bowling from Swapnil Singh (who finished with figures of 4-0-9-1) and Bhargav Bhatt (who finished with a spell of 4-0-5-2), Baroda turned on the squeeze and Andhra’s batsmen had no answer.

Only captain Irfan Pathan, who was the most expensive bowler on the day, went for more than 20 runs in their spell as Baroda once again restricted their opponent to a low total.

While the target was from tricky, Baroda needed their captain to step up with the bat. Pathan came in the 9th over when his side were struggling at 46/4 and before the end of the over lost Yusuf Pathan as well. But he played a captain's hand as he saw his side home with 19 balls to spare.

Brief Scores: Andhra 91/9 (20) (KS Bharat 30; B Bhatt 2/5) lost to Baroda 93/7 (16.5) (I Pathan 28*; Sudhakar 3/15) by 3 wickets.

Delhi maintained their unbeaten start to the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy by the skin of their teeth as they beat Goa in a low-scoring encounter by just 2 runs. After electing to field, Goa went about their job brilliantly and were led by spinner Shadab Jakati, who finished with impressive figures of 5/17 in his four overs.

His spell helped Goa bowl out Delhi for just 91, but their batsmen couldn’t see them home. No one apart from SS Bandekar stood firm as Delhi kept plugging away with wickets at regular intervals. In the end, it was Gautam Gambhir’s side who held their nerve, as they won by 2 runs.

Brief Scores: Delhi 91 (19.2) (S Jakati 5/17, LA Garg 2/5) lost to Goa 89/9 (20) (SS Bandekar 31*; Awana 3/21) by 2 runs.

Yuvraj Singh’s fifty wasn’t enough as Punjab were unable to end Kerala’s winning start. After choosing to field, Kerala's bowlers, led by Prasanth Padmanabhan, did well to restrict Punjab to 135. Sanju Samson’s 72 got them off to the perfect start to the run chase and despite losing a few wickets towards the end, they got over the line and registered their fifth win of the competition and all but secured top spot in Group B.

Brief Scores: Punjab 135/7 (20) (Yuvraj 54; Padmanabhan 3/11) beat Kerala 139/5 (19.5) (Samson 72; Harbhajan 2/19) by 5 wickets.

Cheteshwar Pujara’s third fifty of the tournament wasn’t enough as Jharkhand chased down a modest total of 129 with three balls to spare. Jharkhand’s decision to field turned out to be the right one in the end, as none of Saurashtra's batsmen, apart from Pujara, could get going. Left with a modest target, their openers laid the perfect platform before Saurabh Tiwary and Ishank Jaggi got them over the line in the final over of the innings.

Brief Scores: Saurashtra 128/5 (20) (Pujara 54*; SK Singh 2/23) lost to Jharkhand 132/3 (19.3) (Virat Singh 41) by 7 wickets.

Opener Nitin Saini continued his good form and Amit Mishra picked up 4 wickets as a Virender Sehwag-less Haryana beat Bengal by 17 runs. After winning the toss and choosing to bat first, Haryana struggled to score freely but still made their way past 120 thanks to a fifty from Saini, who made easy work of difficult conditions. Mishra ran through the top order as no one apart from Wriddhiman Saha managed to get going. There was no coming back from that for Bengal as they stumbled their way to 110, 18 short of the target.

Brief Scores: Haryana 127/3 (20) (Saini 74, MS Hooda 38) beat Bengal 110/8 (20) (Saha 32; Mishra 4/30) by 17 runs. 

Other Results on Day 5:

Brief Scores:

Himachal Pradesh 173/4 (16.5) (PK Dogra 79*, PS Chopra 24) beat Tamil Nadu 168/6 (20) (Bharath Shankar 41, Satish 41) by 6 wickets. 

Railways 142/8 (20) (Rawat 72*; Verma 3/20) lost to Assam 147/5 (18.2) (PK Das 77; A Yadav 2/20) by 5 wickets.

Vidarbha 142/5 (20) (AV Wankhade 43, UR Patel 33) beat Hyderabad 139/7 (20) (Vihari 40; RD ThakurMishra 3/29) by 5 wickets.

Team Rajasthan 112/9 (20) (Bhatia 34; VK Saha 2/5) lost to Railways 113/9 (20) (RA Dey 43; Nathu Singh 4/25) by 1 wicket.