On the first day of the Super League phase of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament, Uttar Pradesh cantered to victory while chasing a modest score against Jharkhand. In the Group A match, Mumbai captain Aditya Tare helped the team pull off win and begin the second phase of the tournament on a winning note.
Here are the highlights of the day:
Group A
Kerala vs Mumbai: Kerala 160/7 in 20 overs (R Prem 69, S Trivedi 3/34, D Kulkarni 2/29) lost to Mumbai 164/4 in 19.1 overs (A Tare 71, A Nayar 38, M Krishnan 2/36) by 6 wickets
Leading from the front, Aditya Tare played a 46-ball 71-run knock to help Mumbai to victory against Kerala. Chasing a respectable 161, Mumbai were 21 for two with Akhil Herwadkar and Shreyas Iyer back in the dressing room, but the Mumbai captain held the innings together and forged a vital 70-run partnership with Siddhesh Lad to keep Mumbai in the fray. He then added 48 runs with Abhishek Nayar before returning to the pavilion. The senior all-rounder then helped Mumbai attain the total with five balls to spare.
Earlier, Rohan Prem had 69 off 45 while Sachin Baby made 32 off 26 as they looked to set the home team a stiff target at the Wankhede Stadium. Sagar Trivedi and Dhawal Kulkarni claimed three and two wickets respectively as they worked to keep Kerala in check after Tare elected to field.
Group B
Jharkhand vs UPCA: Jharkhand 133/7 in 20 overs (Shasheem 40, A Mishra 2/14) lost to UP 134/1 in 16.5 overs (S Singh 64, P Gupta 42*, K Singh 1/18) by 9 wickets
UP continued their winning streak in the ongoing T20 tournament with a nine-wicket win over Jharkhand in their opening match of the Super League phase. Chasing 134 at the BKC ground, Samarth Singh (64 off 49) and Prashant Gupta posted a 112-run opening stand to snatch the game away from the opposition. Speaking about the chase he said, "We were looking to chase it down as quickly as we can as we want to maintain a good run rate as well."
"They bowled well with the new ball and it was swinging as well. However, it became a little easier (to score later) and were hitting it well so we thought of finishing it as quickly as we could."
While speaking about the opening stand he mentioned that the focus has been to keep wickets in tact in the first six overs. "We have been working well together and giving good starts of 40-50 runs. (Suresh) Raina bhaiya says that if we don’t lose wickets in the first six overs and score 40-50 runs then we well be in a good position in any game." So we play accordingly.
After Samarth departed, Suresh Raina (20* off 11) took the team to the target with Gupta with 19 balls to spare.
Earlier, after electing to field, the Praveen Kumar-led attack restricted Jharkhand to 133. While the UP captain had Saurabh Tiwary stumped for 38, pacer Amit Mishra claimed two wickets while the senior pacer claimed one to set up the match in UP's favour.
