Raina stars as UP keep final hopes alive
Uttar Pradesh beat Baroda while Bengal defeated Tamil Nadu here on Wednesday to leave the Group B battle for a place in the final between Delhi and UP, in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 cricket tournament.
Baroda and Bengal were already out of the contention, with the latter taking Tamil Nadu along with them with a sevenwicket win.
Delhi and UP have eight points and play on Thursday in a virtual knockout clash at the Jadavpur University campus ground. Bengal are also on eight points but have played their quota of four matches.
TN and Baroda, both on four points, have one match to go but with one team qualifying for the summit clash they have no chance.
In the first match of the day, UP’s Umang Sharma edged out Baroda’s Urvil Patel in the battle of the openers, helping the Suresh Raina-led side notch up a big win in a high-scoring encounter.
Put in to bat, Baroda posted a commanding 192/3 riding Patel’s T20 best 96, laced with 12 fours and four sixes. Deepak Hooda also smashed a 25-ball 45 (3x4, 3x6) as Mohsin Khan returned best figures of 2/38 for UP.
In reply, Umang showed superb skills to register a careerhigh Baroda: 192/3; 20 overs (Urvil Patel 96, Deepak Hooda 45) lost to Uttar Pradesh: 195/3; 18.4 overs (Umang Sharma 95, Suresh Raina 56) by seven wickets.
Tamil Nadu: 129/9; 20 overs (Anirudha Srikkanth 37, Kanishk Seth 3/26, Sayan Ghosh 2/19, Aamir Gani 2/16) lost to Bengal: 134/3; 16.2 overs (Sudip Chatterjee 51 not out, Writtick Chatterjee 44) by seven wickets. 95 and Raina (56) extended his golden run to a third successive day. UP won the tie with eight deliveries to spare posting 195/3.
Krunal Pandya got Baroda off to the perfect defence of their big total by removing Shivam Chaudhary with the first ball of the chase, but for the next 90 deliveries, Baroda were sent for a leather hunt as Umang and Raina took the bowlers to the cleaners.
Umang raced away to 95 off just 47 balls, his innings ended by a catch by Urvil. By then, Umang had dominated the second-wicket stand of 160.
Raina -- coming off scores of 61 and 126 not out in his two previous innings -- hit a patient 47-ball 56 studded with five fours and two sixes.
He was dismissed with 33 needed off 24, and Rinku Singh applied the finishing touches with an unbeaten 26 off 11.
In the second game, Tamil Nadu, after electing to bat, were restricted to 129/9, with Bengal bowlers Kanishk Seth (3/26), Sayan Ghosh (2/19) and Aamir Gani (2/16) sharing seven wickets among themselves. S. Anirudha was the highest scorer for TN with 37.
KOLKATA: BRIEF SCORES