Chand sparkles; pacer Umesh shines on return

Riding on young Unmukt Chand’s second consecutive hundred, Delhi thrashed Gujarat by 112 runs on Wednesday in a Super League (Group A) match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament.

The 19-year-old opener smashed his way to 63-ball 125, laced with 10 sixes and as many fours, to take Delhi to a mammoth 198 for four.

Chasing a stiff target, Gujarat batsmen crumbled under pressure and were dismissed for 86 in 17.3 overs.

Gujarat kept on losing wickets at regular intervals as none of their batsmen showed enough patience to stay at the crease and grind it out.

Pacer Sumit Narwal was the pick of the bowlers with three for 15 while left-arm spinner Manan Sharma also chipped in with two wickets for 16 runs.

Such was the poor state of Gujarat’s batting performance that seven of their batsmen failed to even reach the double digit mark.

Jesal Karia (24) was the top-scorer for Gujarat followed by spinner Rakesh Dhruv (15).
Meanwhile, a five wicket haul by India pacer Umesh Yadav helped Vidarbha beat Odisha by 73 runs.

Playing his second match after recovering from a back injury, Umesh Yadav (5/18) halted the Odisha runchase after a blistering half-century from team-mate Ravi Jangid (63) took Vidarbha to a commanding 180 for eight in 20 overs. Odisha were bowled out for 107 in 14.3 overs.

Brief scores: Group A: Delhi: 198/4 in 20 overs (Unmukt Chand 125, Dhruv Shorey 25) bt Gujarat: 86 all out in 17.3 overs (Sumit Narwal 3-15, Manan Sharma 2-16).

Vidarbha: 180/8 in 20 overs (Ravi Jangid 63, Apoorv Wankhade 26; Suryakant Pradhan 2-22, Basant Mohanty 3-30) bt Odisha: 107 all out in 14.3 overs (Ankit Yadav 54 n.o.; Umesh Yadav 5-18, Faiz Fazal 2-21). Group B: Bengal: 176/2 in 20 overs (Shreevats Goswami 30, Subhomoy Das 38, Wriddhiman Saha 64 n.o., Laxmi Ratan Shukla 35) bt Uttar Pradesh: 162/9 in 20 overs (Eklavya Dwivedi 34, Praveen Kumar 49 n.o.; Sayan Mondal 2-33, Sanjib Sanyal 2-19, Arnab Nandi 2-20). Baroda: 126 all out in 18.5 overs (Aditya Waghamode 30; Siddarth Kaul 2-15, Rajwinder Singh 2-15, Rahul Sharma 2-24, Amitoze Singh 3-15) lt to Punjab: 132/1 in 14.4 overs (Ravi Inder Singh 69, Mandeep Singh 46).