Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2017-18: Suresh Raina roars back to form; Punjab hunt down 199 against Mumbai

India discard Suresh Raina finally made a hefty contribution in the 2017-18 domestic season with a rampaging knock of 126* off 59 balls against Bengal at Eden Gardens. As a result, Uttar Pradesh mounted up 235/3 and handed over their opponents consecutive defeats in the Super League stage of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

Raina played a captain's knock after opting to bat first and seeing Bengal veteran Ashok Dinda send back opener Samarth Singh for a duck in the first over. He steadied the ship with a 55-run partnership for the second wicket with Shivam Chaudhary in which the latter contributed only 8. The southpaw continued having fun even after Chaudhary fell, at this time he found Akshdeep Nath for the company.

The pair blasted 163 runs in less than fourteen overs as young Nath hit 80 from 43 balls including 7 fours and 4 sixes. But the star of the show remained Raina, who continued bashing from one end for Uttar Pradesh. He slammed as many as 13 fours and 7 sixes – nearly hundred runs by itself – as his fourth T20 century set Bengal a massive 236 to win.

The Bengal reply began in threatening fashion for Uttar Pradesh as openers Sreevats Goswami and Vivek Singh raked up 65 in 4.1 overs after which the latter fell for 16. However, the real counter-attack came from Goswami, who was firing on all cylinders in an innings of 57 off 28 balls. Captain Manoj Tiwary fell cheaply after which Sudip Chatterjee joined Goswami in an aggressive run chase.

But all it took was one over from chinaman Kuldeep Yadav to turn the game upside down: Bengal needed 117 from the remaining ten overs with eight wickets in hand, but Kuldeep accounted for Goswami, Pramod Chandila and Anustup Majumdar in the eleventh over to virtually kill the Bengal innings. They collapsed from 119/2 to 160 all out as the middle-order fell to Kuldeep and left-arm pacer Mohsin Khan to give Uttar Pradesh a comfortable win in the end.

In another match, Punjab chased down 199 against Mumbai, whose innings revolved around Shreyas Iyer's 79*. Punjab had crucial contributions throughout their batting order with Gurkeerat Singh playing match-defining innings of 43 from merely 18 deliveries, Manan Vohra scoring 42 and Yuvraj Singh making 40.

Brief Scores:

Group A

Rajasthan 158/6 in 19.1 overs (Garhwal 43, Salman 34; Aaron 2/24) beat Jharkhand 157/5 in 20 overs (Virat Singh 43, Kishan 39; Garhwal 2/15) by 4 wickets

Punjab 199/7 in 19.1 overs (Gurkeerat 43, Vohra 42; S Dubey 3/27) beat Mumbai 198/4 in 20 overs (Iyer 79*, Herwadkar 42; Markande 2/32) by 3 wickets

Group B

Uttar Pradesh 235/3 in 20 overs (Raina 126*, A Nath 80; Dinda 1/29) beat Bengal 160 in 16.1 overs (Goswami 57; Kuldeep 4/26, Mohsin 3/35) by 75 runs

Delhi 143/8 in 19.1 overs (Shorey 74, Sangwan 23*; Meriwala 4/24) beat Baroda 140/8 in 20 overs (Devdhar 77, Solanki 21; Bhati 4/20) by 2 wickets