baroda 172 for 7 (Rawat 40, Rajput 37, Pramanik 2-6) won Bengal 131 (Shahbaz 55, Meriwala 3-17, Hardik 3-27) by 41 runs
It was the story of two birthday boys in Bengaluru. Baroda’s left-arm fast Lukman Meriwala celebrated by capturing three first-order wickets in the same over, before Bengal all-rounder Shahbaz Ahmed kept his team alive with a half-century in the chase of 173. However, Shahbaz stayed without partners and Baroda won. Bengal by 41 runs to book their place in the semi-finals of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.
Bengal got off to a steady start with 28 runs on the board after three overs, before Meriwala’s dream ended. He made Karan Lal strike for 6, trapped Sudip Kumar Gharami lbw for 2 and made a stunning return to dismiss Writtick Chatterjee for a duck.
Atit Sheth then added to the damage by trapping the dangerous-looking Abishek Porel at mid-on for 22 off 13 balls. It was then that Shahbaz left the number 6 slot and joined hands with Ritwik Roy Chowdhury. Despite being 31 for 4 in a high chase, Chowdhury and Shahbaz hit back by smashing four boundaries and a six in the first nine balls of their partnership.
Shahbaz then spun Sheth for six and also drove him for a boundary in the eighth over, while Chowdhury hit Hardik Pandya for six over fine leg in the 10th over. But on the next ball, Hardik trapped Chowdhury behind, leaving Bengal at 88 for 5 at mid-wicket, and Shahbaz with too much to do. Although Shahbaz continued to lose partners, he scored 55 off 36 balls with three fours and four sixes before falling to Sheth in the 18th over.
The foundation for Baroda’s total of 172 was laid by their openers Shashwat Rawat and Abhimanyusingh Rajput. They had taken their time to adjust to a slow pitch, with Rajput taking advantage of his luck in the powerplay. First, Chowdhury dropped him for 4 off Mohammed Shami in the first over of the game (Shami would finish with the costly figures of 4-0-43-2). Then, with Rajput on 16, Bengal’s review for a not out decision on the field for lbw off Kanishk Seth brought back the umpire’s decision.
Rajput and Rawat increased the pace with 50 runs on the board after the powerplay and all ten wickets intact. Shahbaz was clipped over extra cover for four and reverse swept for six. In the eighth over, Rajput hit Saksham Choudhary for six more, before Rawat bowled and Rajput slapped Shahbaz for six and four more.
Their stand ended at 90 in the 10th over, and that started a phase in which Baroda lost 4 for 23 in five overs. But useful cameos from Shivalik Sharma (24 off 17), Bhanu Pania (17 off 11) and Vishnu Solanki (16* off 7) ensured Baroda scored 51 in the last four overs. In the end, the 172 they sided with proved more than enough.
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