The third day of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Inter-zonal T20 competition saw another instance of the bigwigs failing to set the stage on fire, with the combination of Gautam Gambhir and Shikhar Dhawan misfiring twice in two days.
Jayant Yadav was in fine nick, scoring a quickfire 30 and picking up a wicket during his tight spell for Haryana against Services, that helped his team beat them 17 runs.
It was also a day of strange batting collapses, with Kerala, Goa and Rajasthan batsmen falling like a pack of cards.
Hyderabad 126-8 (20) beat Kerala 121-7 (20) by five runs
Tanmay Agarwal, who scored 86 against Tamil Nadu in the last match, fell for three, sparkling a batting collapse that saw only three batsmen get past single digits. However, in a stunning turn of events, 126 turned out to a match-winning total, as the opposing Kerala middle order imploded and fell five runs short.
Well set for a victory with 22 required off as many balls, Kerala lost their way completely, ending with 121. Mohammad Siraj picked up two wickets, with the rest of the bowlers chipping with a wicket each. Himachal 163-5 (20) beat Delhi 115-9 (20) by 48 runs
It was yet another dismal day for Team India discards Shikhar Dhawan and Gautam Gambhir, who, twice in two days, fell for low scores. Contributions from the lower order helped salvage something from the chase, but the team fell short by 48 runs. Pankaj Jaiswal was the wrecker-in-chief, snaring four victims
Earlier, lower order contributions, including a quickfire 37 by hard-hitting all-rounder Rishi Dhawan, helped Himachal post 163 in their allotted 20 overs. Manan Sharma picked up three wickets for Delhi.
Tamil Nadu 108-1 (13.2) beat Goa 107 by nine wickets.Goa suffered an unexpected batting collapse, stumbling from 88-1 to 107 all out, and were comprehensively beaten by Tamil Nadu by a huge margin of nine wickets. Rahil Shah and Murugan Ashwin picked up two wickets each, so did Baba Aparijith.
Abhinav Mukund, with a fiery 68, scaled up the target quickly. The 28-year old Mukund last played for India in 2011, but has been recalled for the one-off Test against Bangladesh in February.
Other scores:Rajasthan 169-7 (20) beat Uttar Pradesh 153-7 (20) by 16 runs.Bengal 152-7 (20) beat Tripura 147-8 (20) by 5 runs.Haryana 166-7 (20) beat Services 150-5 (20) by 17 runs.Karnataka 177-8 (20) beat Andhra 140-6 (20) by 37 runs.Vidarbha 172-6 (20) beat Railways 149-7 (20) by 23 runs.Odisha 153-7 (20) beat Jharkhand 149-5 (20) by 3 wickets.
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