da bwin： A round-up of the matches played in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy on March 18, 2013
da heads bet： ESPNcricinfo staff18-Mar-2013North ZoneAn unbeaten 68 from Gautam Gambhir helped Delhi beat Punjab by six wickets in Gurgaon. Chasing a target of 161, Gambhir and Virender Sehwag got Delhi off to a good start. Sehwag, playing his first match after being dropped from the Indian side, scored 36, while Puneet Bisht, too, chipped in with 32. Earlier, Punjab, who chose to bat, put up a score of 160 for 7. Gurkeerat Singh top-scored with 57, while Chandan Madan and Mayank Sidhana also played useful knocks.Haryana held their nerve for a close, four-run win over Himachal Pradesh in a second successive low-scoring encounter in Rohtak. Haryana put up 110 for 8 in their 20 overs as the Himachal Pradesh bowlers, led by Vikramjeet Malik, stifled them. Malik conceded 15 runs for two wickets in his four overs. In reply, Himachal got off to a strong start but floundered after Amit Mishra picked up two consecutive wickets with the score at 59 for 4. Himachal struggled to recover and eventually finished at 106 for 6.Nakul Verma (39*) led Services to a five-wicket win against Jammu & Kashmir in Rohtak. Even though Shubham Khajuria scored 61 off 60 out of J&K’s total of 108 for 7, Abhishek Sakuja and Irfan Khan took two wickets each to not let anyone else settle down. Services lost five wickets in the chase but Verma, along with Rajat Paliwal and Soumya Swain, made sure they chased the target with four balls to spare.South ZoneHalf-centuries from Manish Pandey and KL Rahul set up Karnataka’s 83-run win over Kerala. Pandey scored his second consecutive fifty, while Rahul scored a pacy 62 off 37 balls, as Karnataka piled up 185 for 5 in their 20 overs. The Karnataka bowlers then contributed their share to the win, restricting Kerala to 102 for 9 in their 20 overs.A collective batting effort helped Andhra chase a challenging total of 162 to beat Hyderabad by five wickets. Srikar Bharat, Prasanth Kumar and AG Pradeep hit useful 30s with support from KR Sreekanth and Gnaneswara Rao. Hyderabad looked good for a big total after a 108-run partnership between Akshath Reddy and T Suman took them to 120 for 2 in the 16th over. However, T Atchuta Rao struck with four wickets to restrict them to 161 for 5.Tamil Nadu handed Goa a decisive rout, beating them by eight wickets in Shimoga. Chasing a comfortable target of 123, Abhinav Mukund and S Badrinath shared an unbeaten stand of 78 runs for the third wicket to take Tamil Nadu to victory with three overs to spare. Earlier, Goa were restricted to 122 for 7. Medium-pacer Sunil Sam was the pick of the Tamil Nadu bowlers, taking 2 for 14 in his four overs. L Balaji and Suresh Kumar also picked up two wickets each.East ZoneArup Das’ hat-trick was the standout performance in Assam’s seven-wicket win over Odisha in a rain-affected match. The medium-pacer took three wickets in the 17th over as Odisha scored 140 for 7 in their allotted 17 overs. In reply, Pritam Debnath scored 69 off 45 balls as Assam reached their target with four balls to spare.A poor batting performance from Tripura resulted in an eight-wicket loss to Jharkhand. Tripura folded for a paltry 103, losing four wickets to run-outs, even as Jharkhand bowlers Shabaaz Nadeem and Prakash Seet picked up five wickets between them. In reply, Jharkhand scored the required runs in the 16th over, with Ishank Jaggi scoring an unbeaten 50 off 38 balls.West ZoneGujarat kept Mumbai to 173 for 6 to register a 20-run win in Ahmedabad. Mumbai’s confident chase stuttered when they lost four wickets for 31 runs going from 103 for 2 to 134 for 6. Left-arm spinner Jesal Karia picked up three wickets for 21 runs. Earlier, an unbeaten 71 from Manprit Juneja and 51 from Niraj Patel helped Gujarat pile up 193 for 5 in their 20 overs. Juneja’s 71 came off 38 balls and included nine fours and two sixes.Saurashtra beat Maharashtra by 15 runs in Ahmedabad to register their first points in the tournament. None of the top and middle order were able to capitalize on their starts as they were at a precarious 76 for 5 near the halfway stage, largely due to the bowling of Ganesh Gaikwad, who picked up three wickets. Kuldeep Raval’s 33 off 29 balls helped push their total to 130 for 6 at the end of their allotted overs. Saurashtra’s seamers kept Maharashtra in check throughout their innings, with Jaidev Unadkat picking up 3 for 19. Contributions from Rohit Motwani (35), Nikhil Naik (25), and Prayag Bhati (25), were not enough as they fell 15 runs short of the target.Central ZoneAshok Menaria led Rajasthan to a seven-wicket win over Railways with an all-round performance. Bowling first, Menaria picked up two wickets as Railways were restricted to 127 for 6. He then guided Rajasthan’s reply, scoring an unbeaten 46 off 25 balls, with three fours and four sixes, to take Rajasthan home with 17 balls to spare.Vidarbha comprehensively beat Madhya Pradesh by 37 runs in Nagpur. Despite losing their openers for 11 on the board, Faiz Fazal’s 66 anchored the innings, and contributions from Amol Ubarhande (25), Shalabh Shrivastava (17), and Apoorv Wankhade (14*), gave them a fighting total of 136 for 6. Their bowlers restricted Madhya Pradesh in their chase, with only Jalaj Saxena and Anand Bias providing any resistance. Shrivastava picked up best figures of 3 for 13.
