South Zone
Robin Uthappa destroyed Hyderabad’s attack with a brutal innings, blasting 92 off 36 balls, to set up an 80-run victory for Karnataka in Chennai. Uthappa hit eight fours and eight sixes in his blitz and was out as early as 9.1 overs, with Karnataka on 113 for 3. CM Gautam scored an unbeaten 53 off 38 balls to lead Karnataka to 202 for 8 in 20 overs. Hyderabad fell behind the asking-rate early and were 47 for 1 after 6.4 overs. They then lost four wickets for 13 runs and were shut out of the contest. KP Appanna took 3 for 31, NC Aiyappa took 2 for 14 and Stuart Binny affected two run outs in addition to taking a wicket to dismiss Hyderabad for 112.A half-century from Dinesh Karthik and a 16-ball 37 from Suresh Kumar helped Tamil Nadu chase down Kerala’s 159 for 5 in 19.1 overs in in Chennai. Tamil Nadu were 46 for 2 after 6.3 overs when Srikkanth Anirudha fell for 34 off 24 balls. Karthik was the dominant batsman in a 71-run stand with Abhinav Mukund for the third wicket and then played second fiddle to Suresh to ensure victory. In their innings, Kerala had recovered from a poor start to score 159 for 5. They were 32 for 3 after 5.3 overs but Robert Fernandez and Rohit Prem scored 44 and 48 to steady the innings. Yo Mahesh took 3 for 21 for Tamil Nadu.Goa clinched a tense two-wicket victory off the final ball of their low-scoring match against Andhra in Chennai. Chasing 119, Goa had lost wickets at regular intervals but were well placed to win with only one run needed off three balls and three wickets in hand. G Elaizar, however, set up a thrilling finish by bowling Amit Yadav for 31 off 28 balls, and also bowling Sher Yadav. With one run now needed off one ball, No. 10 batsman Vidyadhar Kamath struck the last delivery, his first, for four to spark celebrations in the Goa dressing room. Sirla Srinivas was Andhra’s most successful bowler, taking 3 for 28. Goa’s bowlers, and Ryan and Robin D’Souza in particular, had performed impressively to restrict Andhra to 118 for 9. Ryan took 3 for 19 and Robin 2 for 16. Manoj Sai, who scored 27 off 21 balls, was the only Andhra batsman to get past 20.
North Zone
A solid all-round performance led Punjab to a 48-run victory against Haryana in Rhotak. Punjab made 169 for 4 after getting sent in, with Sarul Kanwar scoring 53 off 29 balls, an innings that had four fours and as many sixes. Mandeep Singh made 47 off 28 balls to provide a strong finish. Punjab’s new-ball attack of Manpreet Gony and Love Ablish took two wickets each to reduce Haryana to 39 for 4. The chase never recovered and Haryana slipped to 121 for 9 in their 20 overs. Left-arm spinner Bipul Sharma also took two wickets, including that of Haryana’s top scorer, Dhruv Singh, who made 40 off 42 balls.A brisk 72 from Rajat Bhatia set up Delhi‘s 30-run win against Himachal Pradesh at the Bansi Lal Cricket Stadium in Rohtak. Delhi lost two quick wickets after choosing to bat, before Bhatia took charge. He smacked five sixes and two fours in his unbeaten 44-ball knock, and received support from Mithun Manhas, Pawan Negi and Yogesh Nagar, who all scored between 21 and 29 to carry Delhi to 158 for 5. Himachal got off to a quick start against new-ball bowlers Ashish Nehra and Ishant Sharma, but the other three bowlers in the attack – Pradeep Sangwan, Bhatia and Negi – reined in the scoring-rate. While the Himachal’s top six all got starts, none of them could carry on and their side managed only 128 for 5 in their 20.Services‘ bowlers performed impressively to defend a modest total and secure a 25-run win against Jammu & Kashmir in Rhotak. Amrendra Khan took 3 for 14 in 3.5 overs to spearhead the defence while three other bowlers – Abhishek Sakuja, Mohammad Khalid and Sumit Singh – took two each. Jammu & Kashmir lost a wicket in the fourth, fifth and sixth overs and never recovered after being reduced to 28 for 4. Thy were dismissed for 113 in 17.5 overs. Services also had a jittery start to the innings and were 7 for 2 at one stage. They were steadied by their captain Yashpal Singh, who scored 50 off 40 balls to lead his team to 135 for 6.
West Zone
Yusuf Pathan clobbered 86 off 46 balls to help Baroda beat Mumbai by 15 runs in Rajkot. Yusuf began his innings in the fifth over, when Baroda were 35 for 2 after choosing to bat, and proceeded to hit eight fours and four sixes in his innings. He added 53 runs with Ambati Rayudu for the third wicket and then put on 101 with his brother Irfan Pathan for the fourth. Irfan was unbeaten on 38 off 31 balls as Baroda ended on 189 for 3. Mumbai made a strong start to their chase, reaching 94 for 2 in 9.4 overs before they lost Shoaib Shaikh. They suffered a major blow in the 11th over, when Wasim Jaffer was bowled by Yusuf for 57, with the score on 98. Mumbai needed 64 off the last six overs but their lower-middle order could do the job. They finished on 174, with Baroda medium-pacer Murtuja Vahora taking 3 for 27.Maharashtra registered a four-wicket win against Gujarat, with seven balls to spare, at the Khandheri Cricket Stadium in Rajkot. While none of Gujarat’s line-up could get a half-century, contributions varying between 21 and 40 from five of their top six carried them to 144 for 6. Shrikant Mundhe was the pick of the Maharashtra bowlers, picking up 3 for 33. The chase was steered by opener Ajinkya Joshi. He made 52 off 43, and batted through to the 14th over, by which time Maharashtra has crossed 100. There were no standout performers otherwise, but the middle order managed to do just enough to ensure a simple win.
East Zone
Bengal put in a disciplined bowling performance to beat Assam by 38 runs at the Keenan Stadium in Jamshedpur, in the first round of East Zone matches in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2011-12. After choosing to bat, Bengal’s batsmen could not infuse much momentum into their innings, but for the most part managed to score at around a run-a-ball to finish with 131 for 5. Their total was boosted courtesy 16 wides from Assam. Dheeraj Jadhav and Pritam Debnath looked to have settled in when Laxmi Ratan Shukla got Debnath to return a catch. That triggered a collapse. Shukla picked up two more, while spinners Arnab Nandi and Iresh Saxena claimed five between them to bowl Assam out for 93 in the 17th over.Biplab Samantray scored an unbeaten 73 off 53 balls to lead Orissa to a match-winning total of 175 for 3 against Tripura in Jamshedpur. After the first-over dismissal of Sumitosh Praharaj, Samantray added 59 with Natraj Behera, who made 38, and 56 with Halhadar Das, who made 37, to set-up a challenging target. Tripura didn’t get close. After a 50-run partnership for the third wicket that took them to 67 for 2 they lost seven wickets for 52 runs and ended on 119 for 9. Jayanta Behera, making his domestic Twenty20 debut, took 3 for 20 as Orissa won by 56 runs.
Central Zone
Rajasthan recovered from the loss two early wickets to post a match-winning total of 156 for 4 against Vidarbha in Indore. From 9 for 2, useful contributions from Pranay Sharma, Vaibhav Deshpande and Robin Bist, along with a half-century from Puneet Yadav, bolstered the innings. Shrikant Wagh took 2 for 21 for Vidarbha. The chase got off to a slow start, and Vidarbha had made only 45 for 2 in the eighth over when the steady fall of wickets began. None of their batsmen made more than Hemang Badani’s 29. Vidarbha needed 26 off the last ten balls but then lost two wickets off successive deliveries. They finished on 142 for 9. Pankaj Singh took 2 for 20 off four overs for Rajasthan.Madhya Pradesh edged home by two runs against Railways, in a high-scoring match at the Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore. Madhya Pradesh’s total of 182 for 6 was set up primarily by a blistering half-century from opener Naman Ojha: he scored at a rate of 220, hitting six fours and six sixes in his knock of 66 off 30. The rest of the line-up contributed handy cameos. That Madhya Pradesh did not go past 200 was down to tidy spells from spinners Karan Sharma and Shreyas Khanolkar, who claimed four wickets for 50 runs in their eight overs. In reply, Railways were tottering at 6 for 3 after two overs before steady contributions from the middle order got the chase back on track. In the end, Jalaj Saxena’s run out of Ashish Yadav proved to be a big moment, as he had smacked 47 off 20 balls up to that point and looked good to power Railways home.
