Raina hits 49-ball ton in UP victory

KOLKATA : Suresh Raina roared back to form with an unbeaten century in Uttar Pradesh’s 75-run win even as Bengal stood on the brink of exit at the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 tournament here.

Delhi and Punjab, on the other hand, posted second successive wins in their respective Super League group matches to brighten their hopes to make the final. Without a half-century for more than 10 innings across formats, Raina cracked a 49-ball century en route to an unbeaten 126 (59b; 13x4, 7x6) to become the second Indian after Virat Kohli to score 7,000 runs in T20 format.

He is the ninth player to scale ‘Mount 7000’ runs in the Twenty20 format. This was also Raina’s fourth T20 century and second highest by an Indian as he missed Murali Vijay’s record 127 by just one run here. Raina’s century helped UP pile up 235 for 3 after the UP skipper opted to bat.

Bengal folded for 160 in 16.1 overs with India chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav returning with 4 for 26.

SHOREY POWERS DELHI

Delhi shone bright under lights as Dhruv Shorey (74 from 56 balls; 8x4, 2x6) laid the foundation for an intense two-wicket win over Baroda. It was No 8 Pradeep Sangwan’s unbeaten 23 from 12 balls which helped Delhi to romp home with five balls to spare.

Put in, Baroda rode on Kedhar Devdhar’s 77 to post a modest 140/8 and in reply Delhi were 66/5 midway into their chase with their star duo of Gautam Gambhir (7) and Rishabh Pant (0) getting out cheaply. But Shorey kept them in the fight before Sangwan finished the chase.

YUVRAJ STARS

Yuvraj Singh struck a 34-ball 40 to help Punjab beat Mumbai by three wickets for their second successive win. Chasing a challenging 199, Punjab were 72 for two when the out-of-favour India left-hander took control of the match with opener Manan Vohra (42 from 31 balls; 3x4s, 2x6s).