Mumbai: UP built their innings around opener Prashanth Gupta’s 49 in 41 balls and captain Suresh Raina s unbeaten 47 in 37 balls to post a challenging score of 163 for 7.
Uttar Pradesh clinched their maiden Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy with a thumping 38-run win over two-time champions Baroda in the final under lights at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai tonight.
Displaying all-round display UP pulled out all stops – even overcoming the loss of the toss, to put it across the champions of 2011-12 and 2013-14 and win the summit clash in front of a crowd of 5000 spectators. This was UP’s ninth straight win in the tournament, including five in the preliminary league phase and three more in the super league stage held in this city.
UP built their innings around opener Prashanth Gupta’s 49 in 41 balls and captain Suresh Raina s unbeaten 47 in 37 balls to post a challenging score of 163 for 7. In reply, Baroda lost half their side for 84 and then were stopped at 125 for 7 wickets. Baroda just failed to get going full throttle, especially against the double spin attack of Chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav (2 for 12) and orthodox leg spinner Piyush Chawla (0 for 16).
Yadav’s dismissal of Baroda’s most successful batsman of the tournament, the Australia-bound Hardik Pandya (13) and Deepak Hooda (15), tilted the game in UP’s favour. Medium pacer Ankit Rajpoot picked up an early wicket in his opening spell and then came back to snap up two more to end up with figures of 3 for 30. Fellow-medium pacer Amit Mishra grabbed 2 for 33.
Yusuf Pathan, known for his big-hitting prowess, flopped miserably once again by crawling to 14 off 27 balls. Captain Irfan Pathan came in at no. 7 but by that stage the asking rate had climbed beyond 12 per over. And when he smacked a full toss to the deep fielder, the game was as good as over for Baroda for whom Soaeb Tai top- scored with an unbeaten 26 off 24 balls with 3 fours.
Earlier, put in to bat, Uttar Pradesh benefited from some poor work in the field by Baroda. Both their top-scoring batsmen opener Gupta and captain Raina – benefited from let-offs by the Baroda wicket-keeper Pinal Shah.
Shah dropped Gupta on 5 off Munaf Patel in the second over and then missed an easy stumping chance off Raina when the batsman was on 32 off the bowling of off-spinner Tai in the 16th over. Gupta and Raina, whose previous highest score in five games in the tournament was 28, put on 60 runs for the second wicket in 46 balls to lay the platform.
PTI