Kedar Jadhav
Kedar Jadhav and Naushad Shaikh struck unbeaten half-centuries as Maharashtra defeated Chhattisgarh by eight wickets in their Elite Group 'C' game of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 tournament here on Tuesday.
Opting to bat at the FB Colony ground, Chhattisgarh posted a mammoth 192 for five on the board, but Jadhav (84 not out off 45 balls) and Naushad Shaikh (78 not out off 44 balls) made light work of the opposition bowlers and ensured that their team emerged triumphant.
Maharashtra, who had lost their opening match against Gujarat, were reeling at 30 for 2, having lost openers Ruturaj Gaikwad (15) and skipper Rahul Tripathi (14) cheaply.
But then it was a Jadhav-Shaikh show as the duo took a listless Chhattisgarh attack to the cleaners.
While Jadhav, who has played ODIs and T20s for India, hammered five fours and as many sixes, Naushad struck 10 boundaries and two maximums in his knock.
The two played round the park, conjuring a match winning 166-run stand for the third wicket and took the game away from their opposition.
Earlier, contributions from openers Rishabh Tiwari (44), Shashank Chandrakar (44), skipper Harpreet Singh Bhatia (42) along with a late cameo by Shashank Singh (24 not out off 8 balls) propelled Chhattisgarh to 192 for 5.
Brief Scores:
At FB Colony Ground: Chhattisgarh 192/5 (Rishabh Tiwari 44; Shashank Chandrakar 44; Manoj Ingle 2/43) lost to Maharashtra 196/2 (Kedar Jadhav 84 not out; Naushad Shaikh 78 not out; Veer Pratap Singh 1/23) by 8 wickets.
At Reliance Ground: Himachal Pradesh 109 (Prashant Chopra 39; Amit Kumar 19; Babashafi Pathan 3/9, L Meriwala 3/13) lost to Baroda 112/6 (Kedar Devdhar 49 not out, Abhimanyu Singh 15; Vaibhav Arora 2/34) by four wickets.
At Motibaug Cricket Ground: Gujarat 172/5 (Priyank Panchal 46; Ripal Patel 41 not out; D Negi 2/25) won against Uttarakhand 99/8 (Jay Bista 26, Karanveer Kaushal 25; Piyush Chawla 3/12, Arzan Nagwaswalla 2/19) by 73 runs.
