Mumbai record third win, Gujarat score close win over Baroda

Mumbai, Apr 5 (UNI) Vinit Indulkar made a triumphant comeback to the Mumbai team blasting a 31-ball 69 and along with Mussavir Khote, who made 72 in 47 balls, shone in his side's 21 run victory over Saurashtra in the West Zone Twenty20 league match here today.

In the other match, Gujarat scored their second win in three matches to keep their hopes of qualifying for the national league alive when they beat Baroda by one wicket making 177 for nine in reply to Baroda's 175 for 4 to move into second place behind Mumbai in this league.

Mumbai, with three straight wins are at the top of the table with twelve points, followed by Gujarat with eight points from three matches and Saurashtra four points from two matches, while Baroda and Maharashtra have yet to open their account having lost both their matches so far.

Mumbai, electing to bat, saw the young guns Indulkar and Khote go after the Saurashtra attack as Mumbai put up a daunting 182 runs for the loss of eight wickets on the board. Sandeep Jobanputra with 4 for 27 and Jaydev Shah with two for 25 were the successful bowlers.

In reply, only Jaydev Shah with 49 which included six fours and one six, took the fight to the Mumbai attack. He, however, did not receive any support from the other side as Saurashtra ended with 161 for eight in their alloted 20 overs to go down by 21 runs. Nilesh Kulkarni and Rohit Sharma with two wickets a piece were the successful Mumbai bowlers.

In the second match of the day, Gujarat enhanced their chances of qualifying for the next stage when they carved out a thrilling one-wicket victory with a ball to spare over Baroda.

Chasing Baroda's challenging score of 175 for 4, Gujarat managed to come through with just a ball to spare thanks to tailender Siddharth Trivedi, who slammed a boundary off medium-pacer Rakesh Patel.

Still it was a creditworthy effort from Patel who came up with a superb final over in which he claimed three wickets but it was Trivedi who kept his cool under tremendous pressure as Gujarat ended at 177 for 9.

By virtue of this result, Gujarat (eight points) have put their campaign back on track, registering their second win in three matches while for Baroda its now an uphill task to make the next grade after two successive defeats.

Needing to win in order to stay in contention, Baroda who were put in, came up with a much improved batting performance from their earlier match.

Opener Rishikesh Parab (54) laid the foundation for a big total and shared a fluent 72-run second wicket stand with Rakesh Solanki (39). Wicket-keeper Pinal Shah rounded off things with an unbeaten innings of 28.

Gujarat in response made a confident start with both the openers, Azhar Bilakhia and Ahad Malik, coming up with half-centuries while keeping up with the required run-rate, before Siddharth Trivedi kept a cool head to take them to a nail biting win.

Brief Scores: Mumbai 182 for eight in 20 overs (M Khote 72, V Indulkar 69, S Jobanputra 4-27, J Shah 2-25) beat Saurashtra 161 for eight in 20 overs (Jaydev Shah 49, N Kulkarni 2-27, Rohit Sharma 2-25) by 21 runs. Baroda 175 for four in 20 overs (Rishikesh Parab 54, Rakesh Solanki 39, Pinal Shah 28) lost to Gujarat 177 for nine in 19.5 overs (Ahad Malik 51, A Bilakhia 57, Rakesh Patel 3-24, Ramesh Powar 2-32) by one wicket.

UNI