A fine blend of youth and experience helped Vidarbha stun Tamil Nadu in a Group A clash of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy at the Vidarbha Cricket Association in Jamtha on Wednesday.
Two-season-old Jitesh Sharma scored a blazing 73 (47b, 9x4, 1x6) and veteran Faiz Fazal made 45 (37b, 6x4) as Vidarbha finished a deserving winner by seven wickets.
Chasing 151 for its second win of the tournament, Vidarbha raced to a brilliant start with Jitesh and Fazal in the right frame of mind. If the former went after the bowlers at will, the latter kept things simple by punishing just the poor deliveries. They added 87 runs in 11.4 overs.
Jitesh rode his luck to script a match-winning knock, marked by some well-timed shots, but Tamil Nadu’s performance in the fielding department left a lot to be desired. When on 18, Jitesh slog-swept skipper R. Satish to deep midwicket where Vijay Shankar grassed the ball and also hurt his finger. He was duly replaced by the substitute fielder, Aswin Crist. Not that it mattered. A couple of overs later, Crist made a mess of a sitter in the same region.
Jitesh didn’t offer any more freebies. In fact, he just exploded after the departure of Fazal. A late cameo from Apoorva Wankhede, 17 off 13, took Vidarbha past the finish line.
Earlier, Tamil Nadu lost wickets at regular intervals before a late flourish from Satish (32, 17b, 2x4, 2x6) helped it post 150 for eight. B Aparajith top-scored with 41 (39b, 3x4), but two run-outs cost the team dear. Tamil Nadu also received a jolt when opener S. Anirudha retired hurt for 14. In an attempt to complete the second run, the burly opener dived wildly at the non-striker’s end before limping off.
Tamil Nadu, which has eight points from three matches, finds itself in the second spot on the points table. It will take on table-topper Gujarat (12) on Thursday.
Thescores: Tamil Nadu 150 for eight in 20 overs (B. Aparajith 41, R. Sathish 32, Ravi Jangid two for 32, Ravi Thakur two for 22) lost to Vidarbha 154 for three in 18.3 overs (Jitesh Sharma 73, Faiz Fazal 45, Rahil Shah two for 31). Points: Tamil Nadu 0 (8), Vidarbha 4 (8) .
Hyderabad 173 for eight in 20 overs (Akash Annabathula 25, Akshath Reddy 43, Hanuma Vihari 44; Yuzvendra Chahal three for 43, Amit Mishra two for 27) bt Haryana 138 for seven in 20 overs (Nitin Saini 30, Himanshu Rana 31, Amit Mishra 28 n.o., Mohammed Siraj two for 34, Hanuma Vihari two for 13). Hyderabad 4 (8), Haryana 0 (0) .
Bengal 101 in 20 overs (Debabrata Das 22, Ashoke Dinda 22, Jasprit Bumrah three for 16, Rohit Dahiya three for 14) lost to Gujarat 104 for two in 11.5 overs (Parthiv Patel 52). Bengal 0 (8), Gujarat 4 (12) .
Group B (At Kochi): Kerala 165 for nine in 20 overs (Rohan Prem 56, Sachin Baby 43, Raiphi Vincent Gomez 25 n.o., Jaydev Unadkat three for 23, Shaurya Sanandia two for 29, Chirag Jani two for 25) bt Saurashtra 115 for nine in 20 overs (Cheteshwar Pujara 26, Jaydev Unadkat 32, Manu Krishnan three for 11, P. Prasanth three for 13, V.A. Jagadeesh two for 21).
Jharkhand 104 for nine in 20 overs (Virat Singh 41, Siddharth Kaul two for 23, Gurinder Singh two for 24, Harbhajan Singh two for 16) lost to Punjab 105 for three in 17.3 overs (Pargat Singh 60, Prakash Seed two for 31).
Jammu & Kashmir 119 in 19.1 overs (Bandeep Singh 33, S.S. Majumder three for 17, C.K. Paul two for 15) lost to Tripura 121 for six in 18.2 overs (S.M. Singha 45, Pervez Rasool three for 25, Omar Alam two for 19).
Group C (At Vadodara): Railways 103 in 20 overs (Saurabh Wakaskar 28, Ishwar Pandey two for 24, Ashwin Das four for 10) lost to Madhya Pradesh 104 for four in 16.2 overs (Zafar Ali 36, Jalaj Saxena 37, Karn Sharma two for 28). MP 4, Railways 0 .
Baroda 154 for two in 20 overs (Kedar Devdhar 39, Hardik Pandya 34 n.o., Irfan Pathan 49 n.o., Darshan Misal two for 25) bt Goa 82 in 15.5 overs (Deepraj Gaonkar 48, Irfan two for 19, Hardik two for 14, Rishi Arothe two for 7). Baroda 4, Goa 0 .
Assam 44 in 12.1 overs (Pradeep Sangwan two for 21, Shivam Sharma three for 7, Subodh Bhati four for 9) lost to Delhi 50 for two in 9.1 overs (Unmukt Chand 29 n.o.). Delhi 4, Assam 0 .
