Delhi 193 for 3 (Rawat 73*, Arya 44, Dhull 42) won Uttar Pradesh 174 (Garg 54, Prince 3-36, Suyash 2-36) by 19 runs

Perhaps the only thing that could have stopped Anuj Rawat’s attack was the end of Delhi’s allotted overs. No matter which Uttar Pradesh bowler bowled to him in the death overs of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy quarter-final in Bengaluru, the ball either went to the boundary or pinged the objects beyond.

Rawat scored an unbeaten 73 off just 33 balls despite being 9 for 10 at one point. Six of his seven boundaries, and all five of his six, came from the 15th over. Delhi, who were on 112 at the start of the 15th, finished on 193, before their players restricted UP to 174 to book their place in the semi-final.

The fun began when Rawat bowled Vineet Panwar for four and six each, before taking Shivam Mavi for 23 runs in the 16th over. That included a flick to fine leg and a loft over middle for four each, and two carbon copy spinning sixes over fine leg. Rawat brought back his half-century off 22 balls just after hitting Bhuvneshwar Kumar for six over deep square leg. He took three more boundaries from Bhuvneshwar, before ending the innings with a six off Mavi.

In response, the UP’s persecution barely gained momentum. They managed only 18 in the first three overs, after which Priyam Garg decided to attack Simarjeet Singh. Garg rose over Simarjeet’s head and took him to deep third for six apiece, before finishing the over with cover for four. But Garg’s proved to be a one-man effort as UP fell to 51 for 3 after seven overs.

However, the loudest roar from the sparse crowd was reserved for when Ayush Badoni caught Nitish Rana at long range. The two had clashed earlier when Rana, bowling the third ball of Delhi’s 13th innings, failed to deliver. Badoni then backed off Rana’s next attempt, only for the bowler to get in the batsman’s path after a single was bowled when the delivery was finally bowled. The referees had to intervene to prevent things from getting too heated.

Badoni didn’t forget to give Rana a little send-off during UP’s chase, which only seemed to accelerate towards the end of the 10th over. Garg smashed and bowled Prince Yadav for four and six. He reached his fifty in the eleventh over, in which Sameer Rizvi cut Suyash Sharma four points behind.

Next bowled by Simarjeet, Rizvi and Garg hit three boundaries off the first four legal balls. But Simarjeet took a comeback catch when Garg’s attempted pull resulted in a superior lead – he fell having contributed 54 of UP’s total of 104 at that time. Rizvi scored a quickfire 26 but lacked long-term partners as Delhi’s players continued to work.

Bhuvneshwar, Mohsin Khan and Panwar provided late entertainment by smashing five fours and two sixes between them. But the fact that UP needed their supporters to do all this batting to get even a little closer to Delhi’s total told the story of their batting that day.



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