Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy: Jaiswal, Deshpande help Mumbai qualify for quarters; Delhi, Punjab, Kerala also advance

Jaipur: Mumbai on Friday made short work of Mizoram by nine wickets to clinch a quarter-final berth in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament by topping group A with 24 points. It was Mumbai’s sixth victory in seven games. All the five group toppers directly qualify for the last eight stage of the competition and Mumbai, along with Kerala (group B, 24 points), Punjab (Group C, 24 points) and Delhi (Group E, 22 points) have all finished their group league engagements. In group D, Vidarbha still have one game left and are on 16 points, while Bengal are placed second with same number of points from six games. Group A, B and C comprises eight teams, while D and E constitute seven states each. In Jaipur, Mumbai skittled out Mizoram for 76 in 18.3 overs with Tushar Deshpande getting 4 for 13 in 3.3 overs. Other pacers Royston Dias and Mohit Avasthi also got two wickets apiece. The two spinners Shams Mulani and Tanush Kotian got a wicket apiece. In reply, India star Yashasvi Jaiswal smashed an unbeaten 46 off 22 balls with seven fours and a six to finish the game in six overs. Former India U-19 opener Angkrish Raghuvanshi had his seventh successive failure with only 138 runs in seven innings with a below par strike rate of 115 and best score of 32. It was surprising to find Mumbai persisting with a batter not suited for the format. Punjab batters hit dozen sixes, finish chase in just under 9 overs Three Punjab top order batters collectively hit 12 sixes among them as one of the tournament favourites swept aside Arunachal Pradesh by nine wickets in final group C game in Ranchi. Batting first, Punjab restricted Arunachal to 116 for 5 with seamer Baltej Singh and left-arm spinner Prerit Datta taking two wickets each. In reply, Punjab knocked off the runs in 8.4 overs with Prabhsimran Singh scoring 50 off 29 balls. His innings had five fours and four sixes. In-form Abhishek Sharma tonked three sixes in his 11-ball-23 before being dismissed, while another IPL star Ramandeep Singh blasted 42 in 12 balls with five sixes and two boundaries to finish it off in style. Kerala top group despite bowing to Riyan’s brilliance Riyan Parag first bowled four tight overs to take 1 for 17 and then hit half-a-dozen of sixes during his unbeaten 57 off 33 balls to eke out a two-wicket win for Assam against group toppers Kerala in the final group B league game in Mumbai. Batting first, Kerala scored 127 for 6 in 20 overs with Rajasthan Royals skipper Sanju Samson contributing only 8. Abdul Basith scored 46 off 31 balls. Riyan finished the game with a six in the final over with three balls left. While this was Kerala’s first defeat after six straight wins, Assam finished the group stage with 20 points with five wins and two defeats.