JOIN USA rear-guard batting display by J Suchith, Vinay Kumar and Abhimanyu Mithun helped Karnataka pull off stiff target set by Chhattisgarh en route to their fifth consecutive win in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 tournament here on Wednesday.
Chasing Chhattisgarh's 171/3 in a Group D match, Karnataka were staring down the barrel at 57 for four from nine overs. A 53-run stand off 36 balls between Karun Nair (38 off 28, 3x4, 1x6) and Suchith (34 off 24, 3x4, 1x6) took them to 109 at the end of 15th over when the former got out.
Still in a deep hole, needing 67 from the last five overs with no recognised batsman left, Karnataka turned their fortunes around in stunning fashion. Suchith was dismissed with the total reading 122 but Vinay and Mithun clobbered 54 runs for the undefeated sixth wicket while consuming just 28 balls to win the match (175/6) with four balls left in the chase.
Vinay remained unbeaten on 34 off just 13 balls that included four sixes, while Mithun struck an unbeaten 18 in a mere seven balls with the help of one four and two sixes.
Skipper Harpreet Singh (79, 56b, 8x4, 3x6) and Amandeep Khare (45 n.o., 31b, 4x4, 2x6) had helped prop up Chhattisgarh total.
Bengal win
Wriddhiman Saha roared back to form with a blistering 62-ball-129 as Bengal beat Arunachal Pradesh by 107 runs in another Group D league match.
Wriddhiman plundered the hapless Arunachal bowlers into submission en route his highest score in T20 cricket, hitting 16 boundaries and four sixes, helping Bengal post a mamoth 234 for 6.
Arunachal never had the ammunition to chase down the target and reached 127 for 4 in their stipulated 20 overs.
The match was all about Wriddhiman, who opened the innings after a string of low scores -- 2, 3, 6 and 11 in the previous four games.
While he is coming after an nine-month lay-off following a shoulder surgery, the innings would give him a lot of confidence ahead of the Indian Premier League even though the standard of bowling was sub-par.
This was his second century in the shortest format after 114 for Kings XI Punjab in the in the IPL 2014 final in Bengaluru, which Kolkata Knight Riders won.