Seamer Pankaj Jaswal scalped four to help Himachal Pradesh to a 19-run victory over Delhi in the Syed Mushtaq Ali North Zone T20 tournament at the Ferozeshah Kotla here on Thursday.
Electing to bat, Himachal scored a challenging 153 and confined Delhi to 134 for nine for a well-deserved victory.
Himachal was off to a brisk start, thanks to opener Raghav Dhawan’s stroke-filled 33 (30b, 2x4, 2x6). The rest of the Himachal top order made handy contributions, but the real impetus came from Paras Dogra, who played some handsome shots in his 19-ball 34 (3x4, 1x6).
After Manan Sharma removed Dogra in the 15th over, his third wicket, Delhi checked the run flow significantly. Some spectacular saves apart, the home team fielders consistently hit the stumps to effect three run outs.
Himachal lost at least one wicket in each over after the 15th, but some clean hitting by Nikhil Gangta (14) and Jaswal (10) took the side past 150.
Delhi missed the services of Virender Sehwag, who was ruled out for the rest of the tournament due to a shoulder issue.
Jaswal, getting the ball to move, picked up the wickets of Unmukt Chand and captain Gautam Gambhir early.
Milind Kumar (52, 39b, 4x4, 1x6) and Nitish Rana (32, 20b, 3x4, 2x6) flourished under pressure to put together a 48-run stand off just 5.2 overs. However, Rana's dismissal in the 11th over applied the brakes on Delhi.
Rishi Dhawan and Akshay Chauhan tightened things further as Delhi managed just 26 runs off the last five overs.
Milind tried gamely before being brilliantly caught by Dogra on the long-on boundary off Jaswal, who also accounted Rahul Yadav to earn his best T20 figures of four for 22.
This was Himachal’s third consecutive win, and it sits atop the table with 12 points.
With eight points, Delhi is now tied with Punjab, which beat Jammu and Kashmir, and Services, which defeated Haryana.
The scores:
Punjab 176 for eight in 20 overs (Manan Vohra 77, Jaskaran Singh 29, Gurkeerat Mann 26, Waseem Raza three for 38, Jehangir Lone two for 14, Ram Dayal two for 35) bt Jammu and Kashmir 82 in 18.2 overs (Pervez Rasool 26, Siddharth Kaul three for 14).
Himachal Pradesh 153 in 19.5 overs (Paras Dogra 34, Raghav Dhawan 33, Manan Sharma three for 19) bt Delhi 134 for nine in 20 overs (Milind Kumar 52, Nitish Rana 32, Pankaj Jaswal four for 22, Rishi Dhawan two for 19, Akshay Chauhan two for 23).
Services 141 for six wickets in 20 overs (Pratik Desai 43, Yashpal Singh 41, Rajat Paliwal 27, Kuldeep Hooda two for 29) bt Haryana 126 for eight in 20 overs (Himanshu Rana 43, Deepak Punia six for 14).
