Baroda, UP in title clash

Uttar Pradesh and Baroda on Saturday qualified for the Syed Mushtaq Ali All India T20 final by topping their respective groups on the basis of better net run rate after finishing equal on points with Goa and Kerala.

UP, riding on Prashant Gupta’s maiden T20 century (102 in 58 balls), defeated Haryana by six wickets to finish their Group A league engagements with 12 points from three games in the five-team pool at Rajkot.

They had to wait for the conclusion of the last Group A pool game between Goa and Gujarat, that the former won by four wickets by blitzing their way to the winning total of 181 in only 15 overs for the loss of six wickets.

But the effort wasn’t enough as UP booked their berth in the final with a better net run rate (+0.906) than Goa (+0.879).

A similar situation arose here when Baroda lost to Kerala by 22 runs, finished level on points (12) but pipped the winners in the race to the summit clash on better net run rate in Group B.

Baroda finished with NRR of +0.774 whereas Kerala ended up with NRR of +0.661.
The final between Baroda and UP would be played at the Wankhede Stadium here on April 14

Kerala’s effort in vain

Chasing Kerala’s challenging total of 152 for six, Baroda ne­e­ded to score 127 to qualify as the top team in the group. The latter achieved it on the last ball of the match at the Wankhede Stadium when left-handed batsman Lukman Meriwala back cut K R Rakesh for a boundary when just one run was needed to make the grade.
Baroda were stopped at 130 for eight.

Brief scores: Haryana: 178/8 in 20 overs (R Deewan 46, A Barot 35; A Murtuza 2-32) lt to Uttar Pradesh: 179/4 in 19.2 overs (Prashant Gupta 102 n.o.; A Hooda 2-28).  
Kerala: 152/6 (Rahul Prem 30, Jafar Jamal 37, Raiphi Gomez n.o. 42; Minaf Patel 2-26, Karen Pandya 3-31) bt Baroda: 130/8 (A Waghmode 50; R Prem 2-14, K J Rakesh 3-34).

Delhi: 144/4 (Kshitiz Sharma 57, Yogesh Nagar 29; Vinod Chavariya 2-23) bt Rajasthan: 137 all out (Arjit Gupta 72, Ankit Lamba 30; Javed Khan 4-18, Yogesh Nagar 3-13).