Former champions UP end T20 campaign on losing note

LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh selectors should be complimented for selecting young allrounder Karan Sharma in the side for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Twenty20 Trophy this season.

Vice-captain of the side, the 22-year-old Sharma from Ghaziabad played his part nicely, emerging the highest run-getter with 168 runs, which included two half-centuries, besides bagging two wickets in the last match of the event.

After scoring 55 against Railways in the second match and his best, an unbeaten 68 against Tripura in the fourth game, the right-hander also notched up a fine 43 in the game against Karnataka, but he kept watching helplessly as his fellow batsmen were “unable” to accelerate the run-scoring. Suresh Raina finished second best among UP batsmen with 102 runs in five matches at an average of 34 with an unbeaten 56 being his best.

It wasn’t different on Monday, too, at the Alur Cricket Stadium II, Bengaluru, in the last match in the event and that, too, against hosts and defending champions Karnataka, who won the match by five wickets and made it to the knockout stage with four wins.

Sharma, along with fellow opener Abhishek Goswami, gave a fine start to the former champions after being put to bat first and within 50-ball stand the two collected 69 runs at a brisk pace.

Goswami (47, 32b, 5x4, 2x6) was stumped by KL Shrijith off Suchith J, and even after that UP looked certain to post their season’s biggest total in the remaining 70-odd balls, but as happened in the past, Sharma (41, 29b, 2x4, 3x6) kept staring for a good support from the other end, but in vain as no batting specialist could stand long and the side could muster 132/8.

Even before Sharma getting caught by Abhimanyu Mithun off Suchith J, one of the top most T20 batsmen, Suresh Raina (4) was caught by Devdutt Padikkal off Pravin Dubey. Skipper Priyam Garg (6), Hardeep Singh (2), debutant Nalin Mishra (9), Mohsin Khan (2) and Aryan Juyal (8) departed at regular intervals. Bhuvneshwar Kumar (14) and Aaqib Khan (2) remained unbeaten.

In reply, Karnataka reached home with three balls to spare for the loss of five wickets. Devdutt Padikkal (34, 19b, 4x4, 2x6), skipper Karun Nair (21, 21b, 1x4, 1x6), Aniruddha (21, 32b) and Shreyas Gopal (47*, 28b, 5x4, 1x6) kept the scoreboard ticking even though the hosts lost three quick wickets for just 49 in 5.4 overs.

After showing his potential with the bat, Karan Sharma also picked up 2/23, whereas Mohsin Khan, Aaqib Khan and Suresh Raina shared three wickets among themselves. For yet another time, Uttar Pradesh finished a poor fifth in the sixteam Elite Group A for the second successive season.

BRIEF SCORES

Uttar Pradesh 132/8 in 20 overs (Abhishek Goswami 47, Karan Sharma 41, Pravin Dubey 3/15, Suchith J 3/21) lost to Karnataka 136/5 in 19.3 overs (Devdutt Padikkal 34, Karun Nair 21, Aniruddha 21, Shreyas Gopal 47*, Karan Sharma 2/23).