While Ishwar Pandey set-up a comfortable win for Madhya Pradesh with a hat-trick against Andhra, spinner Piyush Chawla claimed a hat-trick against Maharashtra to put Uttar Pradesh in a commanding position.
Wriddhiman Saha’s blitzkrieg followed by three wickets apiece by Mohammed Shami and Pragyan Ojha gave Bengal a comprehensive win while pacers starred in Mumbai’s win over Odisha.
Highlights of the day:
Group A Himachal vs Gujarat: Gujarat 151/6 in 20 overs (R Bhatt 40, P Patel 35, A Chuahan 2/32) lost to HP 152/5 in 19.3 overs (P Chopra 89*, P Dogra 36, R Kalaria 2/21) by 5 wickets
Prashant Chopra powered Himachal Pradesh to a five-wicket win against Gujarat in the opening game of the domestic T20 tournament. After losing Ankush Bains to RP Singh off the first ball, the opener scored an unbeaten 89 off 62 balls with seven boundaries and two sixes to help the team chase down the 152-run target with three balls to spare.
Earlier, Rujul Bhatt's 29-ball 40 and captain Parthiv Patel's 26-ball 35 had helped Gujarat post a modest total on the board.
Hyderabad vs Bengal: Bengal 185/4 in 20 overs (W Saha 81, SS Mandal 50, CV Milind 2/45) beat Hyderabad 124/10 in 16.2 overs (A Reddy 32, M Shami 3/18, P Ojha 3/23, SS Mandal 2/35) by 61 runs.
Wriddhiman Saha and Sayan Shekhar Mandal set up the match for Bengal with a 138-run opening stand after Manoj Tiwary elected to bat.
While the wicketkeeper-batsman slammed 81 off 47 balls, his partner scored 50 0ff 41 to help the team to a strong foundation. The captain then took the team to 185 with an unbeaten 29 off 21 balls.
Defending the stiff total, Mohammed Shami (3/18) claimed Tanmay Agarwal in his first over and followed up with the wicket of Hyderabad captain, GH Vihari to leave the opposition on 20 for two. Pragyan Ojha (3/23) then wrecked the middle-order while Mandal returned to claim two wickets. Shami then wrapped up the opposition's innings for 124 by castling Md Siraj in the 17th over.
Group B
Team Rajasthan vs Punjab: Punjab 130/6 in 20 overs (M Singh 76, R Bhatia 2/16) lost to Team Rajasthan 133/6 in 19.4 overs (RK Bishnoi 58, Y Singh 2/16, B Singh 2/29) by 4 wickets
Chasing a modest 131-run target, Rajasthan were left reeling at 39 for four in the tenth over by Baltej Singh (2/29) after Siddharth Kaul claimed the first wicket with 14 runs on the board. However, RK Bishnoi joined Rajat Bhatia (14) to steady the wobbly innings and took the team within sniffing distance of the win after the departure of the senior batsman. With a Dishant Yagnik, he carried the team to 129 for six before being sent back by Yuvraj Singh (2/16). The wicketkeeper-batsman then took Rajasthan across the line with two balls to spare.
Earlier, it was Mandeep Singh's blistering 52-ball 76 runs unbeaten knock that helped Punjab to 130 for six even as the rest of the batsmen returned to the pavilion for single-digit scores.
Group C
Andhra vs Madhya Pradesh: Andhra 95/9 in 20 overs (S Himasrinivas 22, I Pandey 4/20, V Iyer 2/10) lost to MP 90/5 in 18.1 overs (HS Bhatia 40*, P Sahani 22, A Bandaru 2/18) by 5 wickets.
Ishwar Pandey left Andhra reeling at 12 for three with a hat-trick after MP elected to field. As the MP attack maintained a stranglehold on the game, Andhra managed to post 95 runs on the board.
Harpreet Singh Bhatia then took MP to the target with an unbeaten 40 after they were ten for three earlier. Ayyappa Bandaru claimed openers Naman Ojha and Jalaj Saxena.
Group D
Uttar Pradesh vs Maharashtra: Maha 109/7 in 12 overs (K Jadhav 52, P Chawla 4/28, A Rajpoot 3/15) lost to UP 113/3 in 11.2 overs (P Gupta 35, A Nath 34*, U Sharma 32*) by 7 wickets.
After Ankit Rajpoot's early strikes left Maharashtra at 21 for two in the fourth over, Piyush Chawla’s wrecked the middle-order with a hat-trick. While the UP bowlers continued to strike at one end, captain Kedar Jadhav scored an unbeaten 52 off 29 to take the team to 109 in the 12 overs-a-side match. While the spinner finished with four for 28, the pacer picked three for 15.
Although UP lost two wickets upfront and were 22 for two, Prashant Gupta's 35 followed by quick-fire knocks from Umang Sharma and Akshdeep Nath (34* off 16) helped the team to a thumping win.
The overs had to be curtailed due to foggy conditions that resulted in a delayed start.
Odisha vs Mumbai: Odisha 91/10 in 17.4 overs (A Yadav 33, S Thakur 2/11, D Kulkarni 2/17, R Raje 2/18) lost to Mumbai 95/4 in 15.5 overs (A Tare 32, S Lad 31*, D Behera 2/14) by 6 wickets.
The Mumbai pace attack put the team in a commanding position by skittling Odisha out for 91 after electing to bowl first. Shardul Thakur set the ball rolling with the wicket of Tukuna Sahu with 12 runs on the board. He claimed two for 11 while Dhawal Kulkarni, Rohan Raje and Abhishek Nayar too claimed two wickets each. Besides the pace battery running through the Odisha lineup, Pravin Tambe too castled middle-order batsmen Biplab Samantaray and Arabind Singh to finish with two for 20.
Skipper Aditya Tare and Siddhesh Lad the helped the team attain the target with ease.
Follow the stars:
Ashoke Dinda did not get a wicket in Bengal’s match against Hyderabad.
Punjab captain Yuvraj Singh scored two runs and claimed two for 16 in the game against Rajasthan.
Naman Ojha scored one run against Andhra.
