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Baroda, Punjab, Delhi, and Assam booked their places in the 2023 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy semi-finals on Thursday. While Baroda eliminated defending champions Mumbai, Punjab won a closely-fought contest against a Rinku Singh-inspired Uttar Pradesh. In the other two games, there were relatively straightforward wins for Delhi, who knocked out Vidarbha, and Assam, who outplayed Kerala to reach the semis for the first time in the T20 competition.
Sopariya, Solanki knock Mumbai out
Baroda 149 for 7 (Solanki 49*, Jyotsnil 34, Avasthi 2-38) beat Mumbai 148 for 8 (Dube 48, Sarfaraz 33, Sopariya 3-16) by three wickets
Sopariya eventually finished with figures of 3 for 16, while fellow quick Lukman Meriwala took a wicket and conceded just 18 runs.
Shivam Dube (48 off 36) and Sarfaraz Khan (33 off 22) tried to get Mumbai’s innings back on track, but Abhimanyusingh Rajput dismissed both set batters to help restrict Mumbai to 148.
Baroda lost an early wicket in their chase, but opener Jyotsnil Singh and No. 3 Rajput steadied them till the eighth over. Then, Mumbai effected a mini-collapse as Baroda slid from 64 for 1 to 88 for 4 in 21 deliveries.
Rinku fireworks not enough for UP
Punjab 174 for 5 (Wadhera 52, Anmolpreet 43, Mohsin 3-34) beat Uttar Pradesh 169 for 3 (Rinku 77*, Rizvi 42*, Brar 1-28) by five wickets
Rinku came out to bat with UP struggling at 53 for 3 in the 12th over. He started quick, hitting a boundary off the third ball he faced. Rinku found support in Sameer Rizvi as they plundered 116 in 53 balls. Rizvi finished unbeaten on 42 off 29, hitting four sixes and a four, while Rinku notched up four fours and six sixes, three of which came off the final over bowled by Arshdeep Singh.
UP bounced back, courtesy Mohsin. He removed Anmolpreet for 43 off 29 and Wadhera for a 39-ball 52 in the 13th and 15th over, respectively.
Punjab still needed 55 off 31 deliveries and Sanvir Singh and Ramandeep Singh brought their big-hitting prowess to the party. Sanvir made 35 not out off 13 deliveries, while Ramandeep scored 22 to take Punjab home in the final over.
Rawat, Dhull inspire Delhi into the semis
Delhi 176 for 6 (Rawat 68, Dhull 43, Umesh 4-30) beat Vidarbha 137 for 9 (Dubey 44*, Lalit 2-16, Mayank 2-25) by 39 runs
After Umesh Yadav’s strike in the third over, Rawat and Dhull kept the scorecard ticking for Delhi. Rawat mainly played the anchor’s role, scoring a 53-ball 68, while Dhull made 43 off 29.
Ayush Badoni also chipped in with a 17-ball 28 at the death to take Delhi to 176, even as Umesh registered a four-wicket haul.
Vidarbha could never find their momentum with the bat, losing wickets in regular intervals and slipping to 85 for 6 in the 13th over. Vidarbha’s No. 6 Shubham Dubey tried to defy the Delhi bowlers with his 44 but it wasn’t enough. In the end, Vidarbha fell 39 runs short.
Assam coast past Kerala
Assam 162 for 4 (Ghadigaonkar 75, Roy 42*, Joseph 2-17) beat Kerala 158 for 6 (Nizar 57*, Basith 54, Sengupta 3-30) by six wickets
seven fifties in a row in this competition, Assam captain Riyan Parag failed to fire in Mohali, but they had little trouble in defeating Kerala to reach the semi-finals for the first time. Assam had gotten better of Kerala in their league-stage encounter as well.
He controlled the chase of 159, putting on important partnerships with opener Rishav Das and No. 5 Sibsankar Roy.
Earlier, Assam had Kerala on the mat early as they slipped to 44 for 5 in the seventh over. But Salman Nizar and Abdul Basith hit half-centuries each and put on a 101-run stand to take Kerala to 158.
After losing opener Denish Das trapped lbw in the first over, Ghadigaonkar and Rishav stitched a 69-run stand with the former dominating the partnership.
With Roy, Ghadigaonkar added 49 runs and when he departed, Assam were only 14 runs away from victory. They got there in the end with 17 balls to spare.
Abhimanyu Bose is a sub-editor with ESPNcricinfo
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