Vidarbha, Kerala and Karnataka marched ahead in the quarter final stage of the on-going Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2021. While Vidarbha defeated Maharashtra by 7 wickets, Kerala thumped Himachal Pradesh by 8 wickets and Karnataka clinched a two-wicket win against Saurashtra in a close encounter.
Maharashtra vs Vidarbha
Batting first, Maharashtra lost an early wicket after Naushad Shaikh was trapped in front of the stumps by Yash Thakur for a golden duck. But opener Yash Nahar and Rahul Tripathi steadied the ship for the side and stitched a stand of 64 runs for the second wicket.
Maharashtra then lost Nahar for a 25-ball 29 which certainly broke the shackles and the side lost wickets at regular intervals to score 157/8 in 20 overs despite Tripathi’s 66 off 45.
For Vidarbha, Thakur scalped a three-fer for 17 runs in 4 overs.
Later, Vidarbha too had a dismal beginning to the chase as they lost Siddhesh Wath on the third delivery of the innings but a fine piece of batting from Atharva Taide and Akshay Wadkar got them back in the game.
The two batsmen put 96 runs for the second wicket and also notched up individual fifties during the course. Later, a late surge from Jitesh Sharma anchored the side to a win by 7 wickets with more than two overs to spare. Jitesh struck an unbeaten 28 off 7 deliveries.
Himachal Pradesh vs Kerala
Kerala rode on some brilliant batting display from Mohammed Azharuddeen and Sanju Samson to chase down a target of 146 runs by 8 wickets in the last over.
While Azharuddeen struck 60 off 57 balls, Samson chipped in with a quick-fire and unbeaten 39-ball 52 to see the side home.
Earlier, in the day, Himachal Pradesh didn’t really get into the groove and lost wickets in regular succession to get restricted to 145/6 in 20 overs. Opener Raghav Dhawan though scored 65 off 52.
Karnataka vs Saurashtra
Karnataka had a few hiccups against Saurashtra while chasing a target of 146 but it was brilliance from Abhinav Manohar with the bat who held his nerves and struck an unbeaten 70 off 49 deliveries to take his side over the line.
Karnataka batsmen never really got into the groove and kept losing wickets regularly before but Manohar held the fort at one end to help his side clinch a win by 2 wickets on the penultimate delivery.
For Saurashtra skipper Jaydev Unadkat returned with figures of 4/22 in his 4 overs. Earlier, Saurashtra managed to put 145/7 in 20 overs, courtesy a half-century from Sheldon Jackson.
The quarter-final fixtures will now be played on Thursday.