South Zone
A cohesive Karnataka bowling performance routed Tamil Nadu for 61 and set up a comfortable eight-wicket win in KochiSeamer Ronit More produced a spell of 3-2-1-2 as he reduced Tamil Nadu, who were put in, to 36 for 4. Debutant opener L Suryaprakash and Shahrukh Khan added 24 runs in a brief resistance, but they were the only batsmen to reach double-figures. Four others bagged ducks and the final five wickets fell for just one run. Left-arm spinner Jagadeesha Suchith was key to that, taking three wickets in his lone over.Karnataka’s openers Mayank Agarwal and R Samarth knocked off 38 runs in 5.1 overs. Tamil Nadu did strike twice in the sixth over, but Samarth and Karun Nair sealed the chase inside 10 overs.Medium-pacer Bandaru Ayyappa claimed 3 for 9 and Prasanth Kumar struck a quickfire half-century as Andhra thumped Goa by eight wickets and eight overs to spare.Opting to bat, Goa were left rattled at 51 for 6 as Ayyappa struck thrice in two overs. Then Sagun Kamat’s 50-ball 46 – the only one of their top six batsmen could manage to get into double-figures – dragged them to 110.Kevin D’Costa struck in the third ball of the chase to dismiss Srikar Bharat for a duck, but Prasanth and captain Mohammad Kaif clattered 71 runs for the second wicket at a run-rate of 10.35 to regain control.Prasanth made 56 off 23 balls, with eight fours and three sixes before falling to Darshan Misal in the eighth over. But by then Andhra needed only 39 for victory, which was easily handled.Sachin Baby and Rohan Prem provided 96 of the 125 runs Kerala put up and legspinner Amit Verma’s 4 for 14 off three overs made sure it was match-winning as Hyderabad were bowled out for 98.Tirumalasetti Suman, who had made 93 yesterday, was trapped leg before for a duck off the second ball of the chase by Manukrishnan, who finished with outstanding figures of 2-1-1-1. Amit, Prem (1 for 3) and Fabid Ahmed (1 for 18) produced a wobble that forced Hyderabad from 51 for 2 to 69 for 5. Opener Danny Dereck Prince, who held on in hopes of making a final-overs dash, was dismissed by Amit for 33 off 44 balls in the 16th over and Hyderabad suddenly required 42 runs off 25 balls and it proved a hurdle too high.The Kerala bowlers’ squeeze was as admirable as Prem and Baby’s dogged 82-run stand that revived the side from 19 for 4 – Sanju Samson was one of two ducks among the top three. Prem, with 49 off 48, and Baby with 47 off 35, counterattacked to defuse some of the pressure. Chama Milind, who took 3 for 28, was a major reason for restricting the target to as little as it was. But his efforts went in vain.
Central Zone
Vidarbha held their nerve to edge Railways by two runs in Indore.Having opted to bat, Vidarbha began disastrously, losing both their openers in 4.2 overs. However, Urvesh Patel and Himanshu Joshi added 71 for the third wicket to launch a recovery. Urvesh then became Krishnakant Upadhyay’s second victim in the 14th over, but Joshi’s 51-ball-56 ensured that Vidarbha ended with a competitive 142.Karn Sharma struck an unbeaten 46 off 44 balls to back up twenties from Vivek Singh and Mahesh Rawat, but the lower order crumbled in the pressure of the chase. With 17 left to get, Rongsen Jonathan, Ashish Yadav and Arnab Nandi fell in a space of seven balls and three runs as Railways came up short. Ravikumar Thakur (2 for 21) and Akshay Wakhare (2 for 35) shared four wickets between them and tripped up the chase.A rapid 82 from Naman Ojha powered Madhya Pradesh to a 60-run win over Uttar Pradesh in Indore.Mohnish Mishra, who made 60 in the last game, was bowled by Praveen Kumar for 17 in the fifth over after MP had elected to bat. However, Naman Ojha put on 60 for the second wicket with Udit Birla and cracked his tenth Twenty20 fifty to offset a middle-order wobble, lifting the hosts to 165. Praveen and Akshdeep Nath took two wickets apiece.Praveen, though, failed with the bat as he was bowled for 5 in the second over of the chase. Prashant Gupta tried to mount a fightback with some assistance from Eklavya Dwivedi and Rinku Singh, but UP continued to chip away at the wickets. Gupta and Dwivedi were dismissed in successive overs, which resulted in a terminal slide and UP were bowled out for 105 after losing their last six wickets for 31 runs. The Saxenas – Jatin and Jalaj shared four wickets between them.
North Zone
Haryana edged out Delhi by one run in a low-scoring thriller at the Feroz Shah Kotla.A chase of 116 seemed well in hand with openers Unmukt Chand (38) and Gautam Gambhir (22) providing a steady base. Delhi had reached 76 for 3 in the 13th over, but Chand fell in the 16th over, Milind Kumar followed in the 18th and Delhi were left needing five runs to win off as many balls. Then seamer Ashish Hooda removed Manan Sharma and Rahul Yadav in successive deliveries to finish with 2 for 9 as Delhi were kept to 114 for 7Haryana could not have imagined that result after they had opted to bat and slumped to 19 for 4. Jayant Yadav’s 25-ball 31 coming in at No.7 and handy contributions from Sandeep Godara (20) and Amit Mishra (18*) took them past 100. Parvinder Awana, Pawan Suyal and Manan claimed two wickets each for Delhi.A frugal bowling performance, followed by a brisk fifty from Manan Vohra, steered Punjab to an eight-wicket win over Services in Delhi.Services, who chose to bat, were jolted by regular wickets and managed only 123 for 7. Gurinder Singh, who gave away only 19 runs in his four overs, had Nakul Verma caught behind in the sixth. The wicket of Pratik Desai in the ninth triggered a collapse as the score slipped from 48 for 1 to 61 for 4. Vikas Hathwala’s 35-ball 32 was the top score and Deepak Purina, coming in at No.7, scrambled 20 off 11 balls to push his team to 123. Harbhajan Singh was the most successful bowler with 2 for 20.Vohra took control of the chase, adding 60 with opening partner Jaskaran Sohi and went on to make an unbeaten 60 off 51 balls to secure victory.Ankush Bains’ 46-ball 54 and some brisk lower-order hitting from Rishi Dhawan (42* of 35 balls) and captain Bipul Sharma (31* of 10 balls) helped Himachal Pradesh seal a 37-run win over Jammu & Kashmir in Delhi.Invited to bat, Himachal Pradesh were three down for 52 in the ninth over before Bains and Dhawan realised 71 runs in nine overs. After Bains was caught and bowled by Waseem Raza, Dhawan and Sharma smashed 36 runs in 2.3 overs to take Himachal to 159.J&K’s chase was hampered with wickets falling at regular intervals. Only Aditya Singh (40) and captain Parvez Rasool (31 off 26 balls) made substantial scores. At 74 for 6, J&K would have ended with fewer runs than the 122 for 7 they eventually made, if not for a 38-run stand between Singh and Ram Dayal (20*).
East Zone
Kaushal Singh’s late charge helped Jharkhand recover from a collapse, and register a three-wicket win with two balls to spare against Bengal in Cuttack.After sending in Bengal and restricting them to 136, Jharkhand began their chase with intent, as openers Ishan Kishen (30) and Saurabh Tiwary (29 off 19 balls) raised 63 runs. But Tiwary’s dismissal in the eighth over triggered a collapse; a wicket fell in each of the four overs that followed with the addition of only 13 runs. Captain Laxmi Shukla (3 for 15) and Veer Pratap Singh (2 for 19) were instrumental in causing the slide.However, a 54-run alliance between Kaushal, who remained unbeaten on 42 from 29 balls, and captain Kumar Deobrat (15) ensured Jharkhand sneaked home.Bengal’s chief contributor with the bat was Debabrata Das, who top-scored with a 33-ball 61, while Jharkhand’s Vikash Kumar and Shahbaz Nadeem picked up two wickets apiece.Yogesh Takawale struck an unbeaten 68 off 49 balls to spearhead a chase of 173 as Tripura beat Assam with six wickets and five balls in the bank.A day after they choked against a target of 153 – they ended up with 147 for 3 – and with a required rate of 8.65 to tackle, the Tripura openers had only one course of action. Udiyan Bose and Rakesh Solanki hammered 42 runs in 3.4 overs. With the platform set, Takwale and Sanjay Majumder crunched 88 runs off 10 overs for the third wicket to bring the target closer. Pritam Das was Assam’s most successful bowler with 2 for 43, he was also one of four bowlers who leaked more than eight an over.Tripura’s bowlers did not fare any better, but left-arm spinner Tushar Saha was a standout picking up 3 for 23 off his four overs. He helped dilute a rapid start – Assam’s openers put on 46 in 4.4 overs after they opted to bat – by curtailing the middle order and removing their top-scorer Sibsankar Roy for 46 off 36 balls. Abu Nechim, at No. 9, hammered 18 off 5 balls to lift the total to 172 but it ended up not being enough.
West Zone
Left-arm spinner Swapnil Singh’s six-wicket haul that accounted for Saurashtra‘s top-six batsmen piloted Baroda to a 24-run win in Pune.Opting to bat, Baroda finished with 143 thanks to decent hands from captain Saurabh Wakaskar (39), Hardik Pandya (33) and Yusuf Pathan (24). In reply, Saurashtra’s start, while not quick, was measured, and openers Sheldon Jackson (37) and Cheteshwar Pujara (24) kept them on course.But Swapnil struck twice in the 10th over to remove Jackson and captain Jaydev Shah. The score drifted to 81 for 2 in the 15th over when Swapnil struck again and removed Pujara. From there Saurashtra collapsed to 100 for 7, as Swapnil grabbed three wickets in the 17th over, and never recovered.Mumbai secured a narrow seven-run win over Maharashtra courtesy Shoaib Shaikh’s second T20 fifty backed up by an all-round bowling effort.Chasing 155, Rohit Motwani fell to Shardul Thakur (2 for 18) in the second over and Siddhesh Lad (2 for 17) broke through Swapnil Gugale’s defences in the fourth as Mumbai got the start they wanted. Maharashtra were 24 for 2.Ankit Bawne, with 36 off 30, got the innings back on track and Rahul Tripathi clubbed 47 off 29 balls as the middle order set up a tight finish. Twenty one runs were required off 14 balls when legspinner Pravin Tambe (2 for 32) swung the match decisively in Mumbai’s favour by getting rid of Tripathi.Maharashtra weren’t the only side with batting troubles though. Mumbai, who were put in, had surged to 61 for 0 in the eighth over with Shaikh at the helm. They were well placed for a late blitz – over 100 on the board and only two wickets down in the 17th over. But Shaikh and Abhishek Nayar were dismissed in the space of two balls and the score then slipped from 127 for 3 to 144 for 7 as Domnic Joseph (2 for 30) and Shrikant Mundhe (2 for 30) brought Maharashtra back into the game. But it wouldn’t matter a few hours later.