Veteran seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar and a fully-fit Mohsin Khan’s superb bowling effort was complemented by Nitish Rana’s power-packed half-century as Uttar Pradesh (UP) comfortably beat Gujarat by six wickets to enter the quarterfinals of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament here on Tuesday.
Batting first, UP bowlers were bang on target as Gujarat managed a below-par 127 for 8 in 20 overs. UP crossed the target with eight balls to spare and never looked under pressure with Rana smashing an unbeaten 71 off 49 balls.
Bhuvneshwar, who has now been out of the national reckoning for more than a year, gave a nice exhibition of seam and swing bowling to pick up 3 for 21 in four overs while the lanky left-arm fast bowler Mohsin pegged the Gujarat batters back with pace and bounce to end with figures of 2/13.
Kartik Tyagi, one of the fastest pacers in the Indian domestic circuit, also regularly breached the 140 clicks to take 1 for 27. Saurav Chauhan (32 off 21 balls) was the only notable scorer for the losing team.
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In reply, UP quickly lost a couple of wickets to be reduced to 22 for 2 at the start of the fourth over but Rana along with Sameer Rizvi (30 off 39 balls) added 81 runs in 12.1 overs to put the team on the cusp of victory.
Rana’s innings had seven fours and two sixes -- one each off pacer Chintan Gaja and off-spinner Arya Desai.
It was Dhruv Jurel (13 not out), who ended the proceedings, hitting a four and a six off left-arm pacer Arzan Nagwaswalla, best known for being one of the Indian Test team’s regular net bowlers.
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