Nitish Reddy picks hattrick but Andhra lose
Nitish Reddy picked a hattrick in his first game in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy but it came in a lost cause as Madhya Pradesh prevailed in a low-scoring thriller against Andhra in Pune. Before Nitish's exploits, MP bowlers ran riot with off-spinner Shivam Shukla (4-23) and medium pacers Tripuresh Singh (3-31) and Rahul Batham (2-9) running through the Andhra batting lineup. Nitish's 27-ball 25 was the best effort from an Andhra batter as they folded for just 112.
In response, Nitish's hattrick had MP down to 14/3. Venkatesh Iyer fell right after the PowerPlay, giving Andhra hopes of a heist. Batham and Rishabh Chauhan then came together for a 73-run stand that put the game beyond Andhra. Though they picked a couple of more wickets, it wasn't enough as MP wrapped up the chase in the 18th over.
After Anshul Kamboj (2-24) and Ishant Bharadwaj (2-24) played a pivotal role in restricting Rajasthan to 132/8, Haryana captain Ankit Kumar slammed a 41-ball 60 to put his team on the winning course. Haryana completed the chase with seven wickets and 3.4 overs to spare.
Rajasthan suffered early blows while batting first, losing four wickets in PowerPlay. Opener Shubham Garhwal (33) fell in the 11th over, leaving his team vulnerable to a sub-100 total. Mahipal Lomror (37*), Manav Suthar (15) and Rahul Chahar (20) ensured that didn't happen. But their efforts were still not enough on the day. Ankit forged three key stands worth 37, 52 and 40 with his team's other top-order batters to secure the win.
A stunning 39-ball ton from Salil Arora went in vain as Jharkhand pulled off a terrific run chase by hunting down 236 with almost two overs to spare against Punjab. Arora walked in at No.5 with his team in a spot of bother at 62/3 after 8 overs. He then put on a one-man show by clearing the ropes 11 times in astonishing fashion and remained unbeaten on 125 off 45 to help Punjab post a powerful 235/6 on the board.
In reply, Ishan Kishan and Kumar Kushagra took command of the chase after Virat Singh departed for a 7-ball 18. While Kishan made 47, Kushagra continued his tremendous form and went past fifty for the third successive game. Anukul Roy chipped in with a vital 37 and Pankaj Kumar provided the finishing touches by clearing the ropes four times in his little cameo with Kushagra remaining unbeaten on 86 at the other end.
A disciplined bowling performance from Hyderabad earned them a dominant 9-wicket win over Mumbai. Yashasvi Jaiswal hit six boundaries in his 20-ball 29 but the likes of Ajinkya Rahane, Sarfaraz Khan and Angkrish Raghuvanshi departed for single-digit scores to leave Mumbai in trouble. While Hardik Tamore and Suryansh Shedge did stem the rot for a brief period, they couldn't push the scoring rate and eventually departed.
Mohammed Siraj ran through the lower order by dismissing Shedge, Shardul Thakur and Tanush Kotian to finish with figures of 3/17. Chasing just 132, the Hyderabad openers went on a rampage. Aman Rao smashed 52* off just 29 balls and Tanmay Agarwal went a step further to hammer 75 off 40 as the win was completed with 49 balls to spare. Siraj was named player of the match for his three-wicket haul.
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