Inter-Zonal T20 tournament, day 7 – round-up: Deepak Hooda, Yusuf Pathan fifties in vain

Fifties from Yusuf Pathan and Deepak Hooda went in vain as Baroda lost while Vidarbha still kept their faint hopes of the Central Zone title alive even as Madhya Pradesh all but secured it with a convincing victory over Chhattisgarh.

West Zone:

After losing the toss and being asked to bat, Baroda didn’t get off to a great start as they lost both openers inside the powerplay. That brought Hooda and Yusuf to the crease and the pair both scored fifties and put on 80 for the third wicket to help Baroda post 168/6 in their 20 overs.

Irfan Pathan, who had earlier failed with the bat, scoring just 3(4) in the team’s pursuit of quick runs, had a horrid time with the ball as his four overs went for 47 runs and a fifty from former U-19 star Vijay Zol helped Maharashtra chase the target with three balls to spare.

Chasing 169 for victory, opener Zol scored 64 off 50 balls, which looked as though it wasn’t going to be enough. He got out 40 runs short of the target with just 14 balls to go but NS Naik scored a 12-ball 26 and NS Shaikh scored three sixes in six balls to end on a 6-ball 21 and see his side home with a ball to spare.

It was a one-sided affair in the other West Zone game as Gujarat romped home with eight wickets to spare on the back of a brilliant effort with both bat and ball. Cheteshwar Pujara got out for a duck and none of Saurashtra’s top order could get going as they only managed 147/9 on the back of some lower-order batting. 81-run opening partnership helped Gujarat get home with 16 balls to spare.

Central Zone:

Madhya Pradesh made it four wins out of four and all but sealed the Central Zone title after beating Chhattisgarh by seven wickets with 15 balls to spare. Despite losing the toss and being asked to field, it was Madhya Pradesh who got off to the perfect start as they kept things quiet in the powerplay.

But the introduction of Chandrakant Sakure and Puneet Datey signaled the end of Chhattisgarh’s slim chances of victory as Sakure picked up a four-wicket haul while Datey got three as the momentum was sucked out of the innings. Chasing 112 for victory, captain Naman Ojha got them off to the perfect start and although he was dismissed for 29, HS Bhatia's 37 helped them get over the line with 15 balls to spare.

Vidarbha kept their slim hopes of claiming the Central Zone title alive by beating Team Rajasthan in Jaipur. Faiz Fazal’s side have two games to go, including Madhya Pradesh in their final group game and need to win both matches convincingly to overtake Madhya Pradesh and take the title.

After winning the toss and electing to field, Vidarbha kept things quiet early on but fifty from AR Gupta and MK Lomror’s 27-ball 38 helped them get to 154/5 in 20 overs. After getting off to a good start courtesy of Fazal and Ambati Rayudu’s cameos and fifty from JM Sharma, Vidarbha looked in control.

But they lost three wickets for eight runs inside three overs including the set batsmen and looked like they might lose a game in which they had complete control. But AV Wankhade’s 10-ball 19 got them over the line off the last ball.

Here is a round-up of what happened on the seventh day of the Inter-Zonal T20 tournament.

Central Zone:

Madhya Pradesh 113/3 in 17.3 overs (HS Bhatia 37, Naman Ojha 29, Shubham Agrawal 2/16) beat Chhattisgarh 111/9 in 20 overs (A Khare 27, Chandrakant Sakure 4/15, Puneet Datey 3/22) by seven wickets.

Team Rajasthan 154/5 (AR Gupta 50, MK Lomror 38, AA Wakhare 2/21) lost to Vidarbha 157/5 in 20 overs (JM Sharma 54, Ambati Rayudu 30, Faiz Fazal 28, TM Ul Haq 2/29) by five wickets.

West Zone:

Baroda 168/6 in 20 overs (Deepak Hooda 53, Yusuf Pathan 56, NR Dhumal 3/18) lost to Maharashtra 169/3 in 19.5 overs (Vijay Zol 64, Swapnil Singh 1/25) by 7 wickets.

Saurashtra 147/9 in 20 overs (Chirag Gani 34, Ishwar Chaudhary 3/23, HP Patel 2/22) lost to Gujarat 153/2 in 17.2 overs (MC Juneja 53, AA Malek 49) by eight wickets.