Syed Mushtaq Ali T20: Bowlers set up Hyderabad win

Nagpur: Hyderabad put up an impressive bowling effort to beat by Himachal Pradesh by 14 runs in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy here on Sunday. Hyderabad managed to restrict Himachal to 126/9 in 20 overs after making 140/9 with Ashish Reddy being the top scorer at 37.

 

Mohammed Siraj (2/22), Chama Milind (3/34) and Akash Bhandari (2/18) stood out with the ball for Hyderabad. It was the second game of the tournament for both teams and they have won and lost a game each so far.

 

Meanwhile in Baroda, youngster Nitish Rana played a brillant counter-attacking innings of 97 from 40 balls as Delhi cantered home by 111 runs against Andhra in a Group ‘C’ match.

 

Left-hander Rana, known to be one of the hardest hitters in the Delhi circuit, certainly would have attracted attention of a few franchises after smashing 34 off 15 balls against Railways on Saturday.

 

Having chased a massive target of 211 on Sunday against Railways, it was Delhi’s turn to put an imposing total on the board as they plundered 236 for 9 in 20 overs. In reply, Andhra were bowled out for 125 in 19.2 overs.

 

However, they were down in the dumps at 40 for four with skipper Gautam Gambhir (18) and Unmukt Chand (0) back in the pavilion. But then Rana launched a brutal counter assault with eight fours and eight sixes as he got 80 runs in boundaries from 16 balls. He got able support from the dependable Milind Kumar whose 58 came off only 28 balls with six boundaries and three sixes.

 

Together, the duo added a whopping 119 runs in 9.1 overs for the fifth wicket. But it was the next partnership for the sixth wicket that was even more exhilarating as Rana and Pawan Negi (22 no in 14 balls) added 51 runs in only 2.4 overs before the 22-year-old was bowled trying to hoick left-arm spinner B. Sudhakar out of the ground. The chase was out of

 

Hyderabad 149 in 20 overs (Ashish Reddy 37, Akshay Chauhan 4/25) bt Himachal Pradesh 126/9 in 20 overs (Ankush Bains 25, C.V. Milind 3/34).

Delhi 236/9 in 20 overs (Nitish Rana 97, Milind Kumar 58, Pawan Negi 22 n.o., C.V. Stephen 5/52) bt Andhra 125 in 19.2 overs (S.K. Ramesh 37).