Tajinder Singh Dhillon’s superb all-round showing assisted Rajasthan to beat a formidable Mumbai by 17 runs and inch closer to securing a place in the Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 tournament final.
Electing to bat at the Eden Gardens on Wednesday, Rajasthan scored a challenging 175 for six and restricted Mumbai to 158 for eight to gather 12 points from three consecutive wins.
Punjab (net run rate +0.024), placed second in Group B with eight points, will have to beat Rajasthan (+0.782) on Thursday by a big margin to make it to the title clash.
In Group A, it was the end of the road for Baroda and Tamil Nadu after losing to Uttar Pradesh and Bengal respectively by an identical margin of seven wickets.
The winner of the match between Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, both on eight points from three matches, will reach the final.
Rajasthan deserved a pat on the back for fighting back from a precarious three for 12 in the third over to erect a defendable total.
Even though Mumbai grabbed three wickets in the space of four deliveries, Mahipal Lomror (74 off 55 balls, 4x4, 4x6) and Chetan Bist (41 off 35, 3x4, 2x6) batted sensibly – focusing on shot selection and good running between wickets – to forge an 86-run stand.
Replacing Bist in the 14th over, Tajinder (43 off 17, 6x4, 2x6), who hit medium pacer Shivam Dube for two fours and as many sixes with a straight bat in the 19th over, scored briskly to add 75 runs in 23 balls with Lomror and help Rajasthan set a 170-plus target.
Mumbai’s reply was impressive as openers Akhil Herwadkar (68 off 29, 6x4, 3x6) and Jay Bista (29 off 18, 2x4, 2x6) stood for a 54-run partnership.
Leg-spinner Rahul Chahar provided the breakthrough by scalping Bista in the seventh over.
Tajinder dealt a double blow in the 12th over. The off-spinner had Siddhesh Lad lbw and Aditya Tare caught and bowled to shift the momentum in favour of Rajasthan.
Pacer Deepak Chahar also took two wickets, Herwadkar and Dube, in the 16th over and left-arm seamer Khaleel Ahmed captured two, Suryakumar Yadav and Parikshit Valsangkar, in the final to stop Mumbai.
Uttar Pradesh banked Umang Sharma’s explosive knock (95 off 47, 10x4, 5x6) and Suresh Raina’s careful half-century (56 off 47, 5x4, 2x6) to overhaul a tough target of 193 set by Baroda.
Summarisedscores
At Eden Gardens:
Group A: Rajasthan 175 for six in 20 overs (Mahipal Lomror 74, Tajinder Dhillon 43, Chetan Bist 41, Dhawal Kulkarni three for 35) bt Mumbai 158 for eight in 20 overs (Akhil Herwadkar 68, Surya Kumar Yadav 39, Jay Bista 29, Deepak Chahar three for 27, Tajinder Dhillon two for 21, Khaleel Ahmed two for 41).
Karnataka 201 for four in 20 overs (Karun Nair 100, Pavan Deshpande 56, Monu Kumar two for 16) bt Jharkhand 78 in 14.2 overs (Vikash 25, Sreenath Aravind two for six, M. Prasidh two for eight, Abhimanyu Mithun two for 23).
At Jadavpur University ground:
Group B: Baroda 192 for three in 20 overs (Urvil Patel 96, Deepak Hooda 45, Kedar Devdhar 37, Mohsin Khan two for 38) lost to Uttar Pradesh 195 for three in 18.4 overs (Umang Sharma 95, Suresh Raina 56, Rinku Singh not out 26).
Tamil Nadu 129 for nine in 20 overs (S. Aniruda 37, Vijay Shankar 27, Kanishk Seth three for 26, Aamir Gani two for 16, Sayan Ghosh two for 19) lost to Bengal 134 for three in 16.2 overs (Sudip Chatterjee not out 51, Writtick Chatterjee 44).
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