Mauled by Mumbai the day before, Kerala came out guns blazing against Baroda and won by four wickets at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday. Raiphi Gomez smashed an unbeaten 47 (21b) and Prashanth Padmanabhan scored 17 (7b) as Kerala chased down 160 in 19.4 overs.
Gomez slammed three fours and three sixes against a bowling line-up featuring Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel, Yusuf Pathan and Hardik Pandya. Nikhilesh Surendran (36, 32b) and Sachin Baby (44, 35b) also kept the chase going.
Baby asked Baroda to bat and his bowlers rose to the occasion. Sandeep Warier sent back Deepak Hooda (32, 16b), Farid Ahmed snared Yusuf Pathan while Padmanabhan claimed in-form opener Kedar Devdhar and the destructive Hardik Pandya (16, 15b). Irfan Pathan racked up an unbeaten 35 (18b, 3x4, 2x6).
Baroda appeared on course to victory with the top order gone before Nikhilesh, Baby, Gomez and Padmanabhan came up with their act.
In the other match, powered by Shreyas Iyer’s 86 (51b, 4x4, 6x6) Mumbai overhauled Vidarbha’s 181 in 18.5 overs to be on top with full eight points.
The scores:
Baroda 160 for six in 20 overs (Kedar Devdhar 31, Deepak Hooda 32, Irfan Pathan 35 n.o.; Prashant Padmanabhan two for 15) lost to Kerala 164 for four in 19.4 overs (Nikhilesh Surendran 36, Sachin Baby 44, Raipi Gomez 47 n.o.; Irfan Pathan two for 14).
Kerala 4 (4), Baroda 4 (4) .
Vidarbha 181 for four in 20 overs (Jitesh Sharma 56, Ganesh Satish 25, Apoorva Wankhede 36 n.o.; Sagar Trivedi two for 44) lost to Mumbai 182 for five in 18.5 overs (Shreyas Iyer 86, Aditya Tare 41, Ravi Thakur 2 for 32).
Mumbai 4 (8), Vidarbha 0(0) .
Friday’s scores: Vidarbha 162 for five in 20 overs (Jitesh Sharma 35, Ganesh Satish 54, Apoorva Wankhede 40; Swapnil Singh two for 41) lost to Baroda 168 for four in 19 overs (Hardik Pandya 86 n.o., Irfan Pathan 26 n.o.; Ravi Jangid two for 36).
Kerala 160 for seven in 20 overs (Rohan Prem 69, Sachin Baby 32; Dhaval Kulkarni two for 29, Sagar Trivedi three for 34) lost to Mumbai 164 for four in 19.1 overs (Aditya Tare 71, Abshishek Nayar 38 n.o., Siddhesh Lad 36; U. Manukrishnan two for 30).
