Chennai/Puducherry/Ajmer: Gujarat beat Uttarakhand by 112 runs and finished Group D on top in dominating style while Delhi secured their second consecutive victory in Group C beating Jammu & Kashmir by 9 wickets in the IndusInd Bank Nagesh Trophy National T20 Cricket for the Blind being played at different grounds of the cities. Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Rajasthan and Jharkhand also secured wins in their respective matches.
In Puducherry’s Palymra Cricket Ground where the Group D matches are taking place, Gujarat completed their dominating group stage after beating Uttarakhand by 112 runs. Uttarakhand send Gujarat to bat after winning the toss. Gujarat batters who have been in fine form throughout the tournament made complete use of it and scored 245/3 in 20 overs. Openers Zina Kesare and Ashwin Kunvar stitched together a 135 run partnership for the first wicket. Zina scored 82 runs while Ashwin scored 67. Ganesh Bhusara accelerated towards the end with a 19 ball 37 to take Gujarat’s score well past 200. Afzal and Gaurav Bhatt took a wicket each for the bowling side. In reply, Gujarat bowlers did not give much chance to the batters to score freely. They took wickets regularly and dented the chase. Only Deepak Rawat (36) and Gambheer Singh (25) offered some resistance and their innings eventually ended at 133/7 in 20 overs. Kiran Bhayani took 2 wickets, while Hitesh Patel, Zina Kesare and Balajibhai Soda scalped a wicket each.
In the other match of the group, Puducherry beat Madhya Pradesh by 57 runs to secure their first victory of the tournament. Batting first, Puducherry put up a big total of 192/2 in 20 overs. G. Dhinagaran top scored with 63 runs while opener Sakthiganapathi remained unbeaten after scoring 54 runs. Veeramani also contributed with 33 runs. Madhya Pradesh faltered in their chase from the beginning losing wickets and gaining no momentum. They were bowled out for 135 runs in 16.3 overs. Aravind Tumla top scored with 30 runs while Rampal Uike scored 21. Puducherry captain, Periyan took 3 wickets and V. Saravanan took 1 wicket. 6 batters succumbed to run outs in the innings.
In Group A matches at Sri Ramachandra University, Chennai, hosts Tamil Nadu secured their first victory in the tournament after beating Himachal Prade sh by 66 runs. Winning the toss and batting first, Tamil Nadu openers Venkatesh Munikaran and R. Sarathkumar put on 196 runs for the first wicket setting up the hosts for a huge total. Both batters were dismissed in the 19th over by Vijay Kumar after scoring 76 and 97 runs respectively. The hosts lost 3 more wickets in the pursuit to score quick runs and ended the innings with 209/5 in 20 overs. Himachal started their chase pretty well but fell under the pressure of scoring runs quickly. B.R Kaushal (38), Sanjay (17), Umesh (20) and Vijay Kumar (24) had good starts but could not play long innings to take Himachal close to the target. In the end, their innings ended on 143/7 in 20 overs. Maharaja took 2 wickets for Tamil Nadu.
In the second match of the group, Jharkhand beat Kerala by 18 runs to secure their first points in the tournament. Opting to bat after winning the toss, Jharkhand scored 190/4 in their 20 overs aided by a brilliant unbeaten century by Sanjeev Kerketta who scored 101 of 67 balls with the help of 13 boundaries. He put together an opening wicket partnership of 121 runs along with Rahul Soren who scored 45 runs. Venugopal took 2 wickets while A.V Binish took a wicket for Kerala. In reply, Kerala lost two quick wickets in the beginning. The innings was put on track again by a third wicket partnership between K. Abdul Munaz and Mohammed Farhan who stitched together a 131 run partnership. Requiring 43 runs of the last 5 overs, Kerala batters came under pressure and lost wickets eventually giving Jharkhand the opportunity to finish the game. Kerala were bowled out for 172 in 19.1 overs, losing the last 7 wickets for just 24 runs. Abdul Munaz scored 83 while Farhan scored 45 runs. No other batters could reach double figures. Rajeev Ranjan Das was the pick of the bowlers taking 4 wickets while Rahul Soren scalped 2 and Rohit Oraon took one wicket.
Group C matches at the Lawrence and Mayo Public School, Ajmer saw Delhi thrash Jammu & Kashmir by 9 wickets to secure their second consecutive victory. J& K who won the toss and batted first collapsed under some good bowling and fielding performance by Delhi and bowled out for 121/10 in 18.3 overs. Ajay Kumar top scored with 22 runs. Niraj Kumar Pandey scalped 3 wickets for Delhi. Delhi chased down the target easily in 9.5 overs losing just a solitary wicket. Captain Manish Kumar did the bulk of the scoring by smashing 87 runs of 44 balls with the help of 15 boundaries.
In the other match of the group, hosts Rajasthan also secured an easy victory over Telangana by 9 wickets. They send the opposition to bat first and it proved to be the right decision. They restricted Telangana to just 135/9 in 20 overs with Nikhil Bathula and K. Sai Vamshi scoring 40 and 34 respectively. Lalit Meena took 3 wickets while Rohitash Meena took 2 for the hosts. Rajasthan chased down the target in just 9.3 overs with openers Hanuman Ram Puniya and Rohitash Meena putting together a partnership of 122 runs. Hanuman scored 74 while Rohitash remained not out on 38. Nikhil Bathula took the solitary wicket for Telangana.
Tomorrow’s Matches:
Group A (Chennai)
Jharkhand vs Himachal Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh vs Tamil Nadu
Group C (Ajmer)
Jammu & Kashmir vs Telangana
Rajasthan vs Odisha
Group D (Puducherry)
Uttarakhand vs Madhya Pradesh
Puducherry vs Haryana
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