Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Mumbai registered big wins on day 1 of the Inter-Zonal T20 tournament. Indian internationals were on fire for their respective teams with Ajinkya Rahane leading the pack with a brilliant show against Baroda. His fellow Test teammates, Jayant Yadav and Ishant Sharma starred with the ball as they bowled economical spells for Haryana and Delhi, respectively.
Out-of-form opener Shikhar Dhawan played a crucial knock of 30, while one of India’s two triple centurions in Tests, Karun Nair looked good in his short stay at the crease. Let us take a look at all that happened on the first day of the tournament.
South Zone
Murugan Ashwin’s all-round show helped Tamil Nadu beat arch-rivals Karnataka by 4 wickets. Choosing to bat, Karnataka scored just 144/9 in their 20 overs as Tamil Nadu’s M Ashwin, K Vignesh, T Natarajan and Rahil Shah took 2 wickets apiece. Chasing 145, TN got off to a worst possible start as they lost Aniruddha Srikanth and Abhinav Mukund early before Vijay Shankar and B Aparajith ran themselves out in successive balls.
Vijay Shankar tried for a couple that was not on offer while Aparajith collided with Dinesh Karthik in the middle of the pitch that resulted in him walking back to the pavilion without facing a ball. Karthik and Ashwin put on a 51-run partnership for the sixth wicket and took their team home.
Karthik was run out for 45 in the penultimate over but Ashwin remained unbeaten on 34 off 20 balls with 3 fours and 2 sixes and helped TN cross the line with 4 balls to spare.
In the other matches, Kerala and Hyderabad thumped Andhra and Goa in high-scoring matches.
Brief scores:
Kerala 175/7 in 20 overs (Vishnu Sood 63, Sanju Samson 31, Ayappa Bandaru 2/39, KV Sasikanth 2/29) beat Andhra 154/7 in 20 overs (Ricky Bhui 48, Dwaraka Ravi Teja 33, Basil Thampi 3/18) by 21 runs.
Hyderabad 224/4 in 20 overs (Tanmay Agarwal 91, Akshath Reddy 55, S Badrinath 49) beat Goa 173/5 in 20 overs (SS Bandekar 53*, Sagun Kamat 50) by 51 runs.
Karnataka 144/9 in 20 overs (R Samarth 40, K Gowtham 16, M Ashwin 2/21, Rahil Shah 2/24) lost to Tamil Nadu 145/5 in 19.2 overs(Dinesh Karthik 45, M Ashwin 34*)
West Zone
After being dropped from the Indian T20I side to face England, Ajinkya Rahane sent out a strong message to the selectors by scoring a 53-ball 78 to propel Mumbai to 211/3 in their 20 overs. Rahane’s innings had 11 fours and one six and the Indian Test vice-captain was supported well by his skipper Aditya Tare, who scored 79 off just 41 balls with 5 fours and 5 sixes.
In return, Baroda got off to a flier before veteran Pravin Tambe struck three decisive blows as he dismissed Deepak Hooda, Irfan Pathan and Yusuf Pathan in quick succession. Vikram Solanki and Swapnil Singh tried their best to take their team home, but Irfan Pathan’s men fell short by 6 runs.
In the other match, Rijul Bhatt’s all-round effort helped Ranji Trophy champions Gujarat get the better of Maharashtra by 5 wickets.
Brief scores:
Mumbai 211/3 in 20 overs (Ajinkya Rahane 78, Aditya Tare 79) beat Baroda 205/8 in 20 overs (Vikram Solanki 69*, Swapnil Singh 35, Pravin Tambe 3/26, Shivam Dube 2/6) by 6 runs.
Maharashtra 154/7 in 20 overs (Ankit Bawane 90*, NS Shaikh 24, Rijul Bhatt 3/28) lost to Gujarat 155/5 in 18.5 overs (Rijul Bhatt 54, Chirag Gandhi 39*, Anupam Sanklecha 2/47) by 5 wickets.
North Zone
Delhi beat Jammu and Kashmir by 8 wickets in their first North Zone match at the HPCA stadium in Dharamsala. Ishant Sharma looked in a league of his own as the lanky pacer bowled 14 dots off the 18 balls he delivered in the innings. J&K batsmen were kept at bay as they managed to score just 103 in their 20 overs.
Chasing a below par total, Delhi lost the wicket of skipper Gautam Gambhir for just 1. Shikhar Dhawan and Unmukt Chand looked solid and put on a 61-run partnership for the third wicket before Dhawan was castled by Ram Dayal for a 43-ball 30. Unmukt Chand kept his calm and took Delhi home with 22 balls to spare.
In the other matches in the North Zone, Haryana thrashed Punjab by 47 runs while Services managed to beat Himachal Pradesh by 4 wickets.
Brief scores:
Himachal Pradesh 128/5 in 20 overs (Rishi Dhawan 37*, AR Kumar 34, DG Pathania 2-10) lost to Services 131/6 in 14.5 overs (Amit Pachhara 47*, Pankaj Jaiswal 3/33) by 4 wickets.
Haryana 153/7 in 20 overs ( Rajat Paliwal 44, S Chauhan 41, Manpreet Grewal 2/29) beat Punjab 106 in 18.5 overs (Manan Vohra 24, Jaskaran Sohi 27, Sanjay Pahal 3/8, Jayant Yadav 1/10) by 47 runs.
Jammu and Kashmir 103/6 in 20 overs (Shubham Khajuria 26, Pranav Gupta 24, Manan Sharma 2/13, Ishant Sharma 0/5) lost to Delhi 106/2 in 16.2 overs (Unmukt Chand 49*, Shikhar Dhawan 30) by 8 wickets.
Central Zone
Akshdeep Nath and Sarfaraz Khan scored unbeaten half-centuries and helped Uttar Pradesh beat Chhattisgarh by 8 wickets. Chasing 158 to win, UP got off to a steady start before Sarfaraz and Nath put on an unbeaten 91-run partnership in just 59 balls to take their team home. Sarfaraz scored 52 off 31 balls with 5 fours and 2 sixes while Nath accounted for 58 off 45 balls with 4 fours and 2 sixes.
In the other match, Naman Ojha’s fifty led Madhya Pradesh to a 5-wicket win over Railways.
Brief scores:
Railways 155/4 in 20 overs (Mahesh Rawat 63*, Faiz Ahmed 40) lost to Madhya Pradesh 156/5 in 19.5 overs (Naman Ojha 54, Mukul Raghav 32) by 5 wickets.
Chhattisgarh 157/5 in 20 overs ( AN Khare 72, Abhimanyu Chauhan 56, Amit Mishra 2-27) lost to Uttar Pradesh 161/2 in 19.2 overs (Sarfaraz Khan 52*, Akshdeep Nath 58*)
East Zone
Assam beat Ranji Trophy semi-finalists Jharkhand by 4 wickets, thanks to Abu Nechim Ahmed’s 3-24 with the ball and Amit Verma’s 55 with the bat. In the other match, Odisha beat Tripura by 10 runs in a thrilling encounter.
Brief scores:
Jharkhand 133/9 in 20 overs (Virat Singh 26, Ishan Kishan 18, Abu Nechim Ahmed 3-24) lost to Assam 137/6 in 18.3 overs (Amit Verma 55, Sibsankar Roy 34, Varun Aaron 2/39, Rahul Sharma 2/30) by 4 wickets.
Odisha 131/6 (Arabind Singh 23*, Abhishek Yadav 23, AK Sarkar 3/22, SS Majumder 2/18) beat Tripura 121/8 in 20 overs (Gurinder Singh 24*, Smit Patel 20, Dhiraj Singh 4/18) by 10 runs.
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