All-round Krunal wins it for Baroda

Vadodara, Jan. 10: Krunal Pandya’s all-round show helped Baroda beat Uttarakhand by five runs in their opening game of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy here on Sunday.

Put into bat in a Group C game, hosts Baroda first rode on Pandya’s blazing 76 to post a competitive 168/7 on the board before the bowlers held their nerves to restrict Uttarakhand to 163/6 despite a fighting 77 by Dikshanshu Negi.

Krunal, who is Baroda’s captain, also contributed with the ball handsomely to return with figures of 2/33.

He along with Smit Patel conjured a crucial 89 run stand for the fourth wicket and rescued the team after they were reeling at 41/3 at one stage.

For Uttarakhand, righthanded batsman Negi hammered nine boundaries and six in his 57-ball 77 run knock, while Kunal Chandela, who came in at number seven, stuck a 26ball 48 but the two could not take their side home.

BENGAL DRUB ODISHA, TN BEAT JHARKHAND

Host Bengal began their campaign in the Syed Mushthaq Ali Trophy T20 tournament with a thumping nine-wicket win against Odisha in an Elite Group ‘B’ match, here on Sunday.

In another match in the group, Tamil Nadu posted a crushing 66-run win over Jharkhand, courtesy opener C. Hari Nishanth’s unbeaten 92-run knock and an all-round effort by the bowlers. Debutant medium-pacer R Sonu Yadav picked up three for 31 to star in the winning start.

In the Bengal-Odisha match, the host team’s skipper Anustup Majumadar won the toss and sent the opponents in to bat. The Odisha batsmen found the going tough in the face of some good bowling by the highly-rated Ishan Porel (3/26) and Akash Deep (2/20).

Brief Scores: Baroda 168/7 (Krunal Pandya 76, S Patel 41; A Madhwal 3/16) bt Uttarakhand 163/6 (D. Negi 77 not out; Kunal Chandela 48; Krunal Pandya 2/33). Tamil Nadu 189/5 (C. Hari Nishanth 92 not out, Dinesh Karthik 46) beat Jharkhand 123/7 (Anand Singh 28 not out, Sonu Yadav 3/31, Sandeep Warrier 2/22).