In the last round of matches of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Super League, Baroda and Uttar Pradesh won their respective groups to make it to the final of the domestic T20 tournament which will be held in Mumbai on January 20.
An Irfan Pathan-led Baroda side edged Mumbai in the last over of the match to go top of the group and thus make it to the final on account of having the highest net run rate in Group A of the Super League. Baroda won the toss and elected to field and was able to restrict Mumbai to just 151 in 20 overs.
Suryakumar Yadav top-scored for Mumbai after he made an unbeaten 57 off 36 balls. Bhargav Bhatt picked up two wickets for 25 runs in four overs. Captain, Irfan Pathan was the most economical of the bowlers as he gave away only 14 runs in three overs and picked up a wicket.
Deepak Hooda was the best player in the Baroda innings as he scored a 35-ball 53 to aid his side's thrilling chase. Hooda's partnerships with all-rounder Hardik Pandya (49 runs) and Irfan Pathan (43 runs) were key to helping Baroda reach the target.
However, Baroda had a late scare after losing Pinal Shah in the 19th over and were down to 145/7 with 10 balls left to score the remaining seven runs. Baroda lost two more wickets in the same over and it seemed like Mumbai would edge it. Tail-ender, Bhargav Bhatt scored the winning runs with a boundary to save his side embarrassment.
Brief Scores: Baroda (toss) 153/9, 19 overs (Hooda 53, Pandya 28; Tambe 3/26, Kulkarni 2/23) beat Mumbai 151/5, 20 overs (Suryakumar Yadav 57*, Shashank Singh 25; Bhargav Bhatt 2/25) by one wicket.
Uttar Pradesh, who were led by Suresh Raina, also won a close contest as they chased down the target of 159 with just two balls to spare. UP won the toss and chose to field.
Delhi opener, Unmukt Chand top-scored with a 35-ball 48 hitting three fours and three sixes. After being 105/6 at the end of the 15 overs, Delhi were powered by a late onslaught by all-rounder Pawan Negi who scored 41 off 23 balls to take his side to 158/6 from 20 overs.
Medium-pacer Amit Mishra was the best of the bowlers for UP as he picked up two wickets for 25 runs. Piyush Chawla and Kuldeep Yadav also picked up two wickets apiece for UP.
In reply, UP got off to a terrible start as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals. They were 68/5 in 10.2 overs and seemed set for a bad loss. However, wicketkeeper Eklavya Dwivedi played a brilliant knock of 49 off 35 balls to take his side to a three-wicket victory. Suresh Raina scored 22 off 18 balls and was the second-highest scorer.
Navdeep Saini picked up two wickets giving away just 24 runs. Manan Sharma, Parvinder Awana and Pawan Negi picked up a wicket each for Delhi.
Brief Scores: Uttar Pradesh (toss) 159/7, 19.4 overs (Dwivedi 49*, Raina 22; Saini 2/24) beat Delhi 158/6, 20 overs (Chand 48, Negi 41*; Amit Mishra 2/25, Kuldeep Yadav 2/29) by three wickets.
Vijay Hazare winners, Gujarat won their second match of the Super League as they beat Jharkhand by six wickets. Jharkhand, who batted first, scored 142/6 in 20 overs with Ishank Jaggi top-scoring with 39.
Newly-selected Indian T20I squad member, Jasprit Bumrah bowled well giving away just 28 runs in four overs and picking up a wicket.
Gujarat did not make much of a fuss about the chase as they reached the target in just 14.1 overs. Knocks of 35 and 33 from Priyank Panchal and Manpreet Juneja got Gujarat home with no trouble.
Brief Scores: Gujarat (toss) 146/4, 14.1 overs (Panchal 35, Juneja 33; Kaushal Singh 2/21) beat Jharkhand 142/6, 20 overs (Jaggi 39; Kalaria 2/34 RP Singh 1/20) by six wickets.
Kerala missed out on a place in the final of the tournament after missing out on net run rate in spite of winning a low-scoring contest. After restricting Vidarbha to just 105 in 19.3 overs, Kerala did not reach the target until the 19th over.
Brief Scores: Kerala 109/8, 18.4 overs (Prem 34; Wakhare 3/26, Ravikumar Thakur 2/19) beat Vidarbha 105/10, 19.3 overs (Urvesh Patel 28; Niyas 3/14, Manukrishnan 3/29) by two wickets.
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