Last-ball disaster for Mumbai

Karnataka captain Vinay Kumar effected a run-out off the last ball to help his team snatch a one-run win over Mumbai in a Group D league encounter of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy inter-State T20 tournament here at the DRIEMS ground on Sunday. In other matches, Uttar Pradesh comfortably beat Odisha by 32 runs to reach the top of the standings with eight points from successive wins, while Maharashtra picked up its first points after downing Services by 31 runs.

Vinay Kumar’s last-over cameo tilted the balance in Karnataka’s favour as he made good use of his international experience, bowling the correct line at the death, which yielded two wickets off the final two balls. Put in to bat, Karnataka showed better application compared to its unsuccessful first round outing against Services. It lost opener Mayank Agarwal early, but Mohammad Taha and Robin Uthappa put on a 64-run second wicket partnership to negate the early setback.

The young Taha lent capable support to the accomplished Uthappa as the two stroked freely against a determined Mumbai bowling attack. Uthappa survived two confident leg-before appeals off pacer Shardul Thakur early, but shrugged it off with a fluent 30 (25b, 4x4, 6x1). Taha (37, 32b, 4x4, 6x1) was equally efficient before Stuart Binny took on the reins of scoring with an aggressive 38 (19b, 3x4, 2x6).

Karnataka reached a strong 162 and could have reached a bigger total had it not lost its final three wickets off the last three deliveries of the concluding over bowled by Rohan Raje (who missed a hat-trick as the last wicket was a run out).

Aggressive starts from Shreyas Iyer (32, 29b, 4x4, 6x1) and Aditya Tare (28, 19b, 3x4, 1x6) kept Mumbai fairly close to the required run rate, but it was a remarkable rearguard effort from the seasoned Abhishek Nayar that took it close to the target. The left-hander hit four sixes and two boundaries in his 32-ball 49, but fell rather cheaply when Mumbai needed just two runs for a win.

Dramatic finish

Needing 12 off the final over, Nayar hit Vinay Kumar for a six off the first ball to get Mumbai within touching distance. He continued to bat sensibly, and with two required off the last two balls, Mumbai could smell victory. Vinay, however, struck off the penultimate ball to force Nayar to nick one behind. Last man Pravin Tambe pushed the final ball straight at Vinay, who ran him out easily on the follow-through and accomplished a dramatic one-run win.

BRIEF SCORES (Group D)

Karnataka 162 all out (Stuart Binny 38, Mohammad Taha 37, Robin Uthappa 30; Dhawal Kulkarni 3/35, Rohan Raje 3/29) bt Mumbai 161 all out (Abhishek Nayar 49, Shreyas Iyer 32, Aditya Tare 28 ; Stuart Binny 2/20, S Aravind 2/32).

Maharashtra 159/8 (Nikhil Naik 69, Kedar Jadhav 36; Nitin Yadav 3/50, Raushan Raj 2/21) bt Services 128 all out in 18.3 ovs (Rajat Paliwal 25, Soumya Swain 27; Shamshuzama Kazi 3/25, Swapnil Gugale 3/18).

Uttar Pradesh 150/5 (Prashant Gupta 53, Eklavya Dwivedi 47; Biplab Samantray 2/17) bt Odisha 118/8 (P Roshan Kumar Rao 31, Govinda Poddar 22; Amit Mishra 2/32, Kuldeep Yadav 2/24).