Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy: Maharashtra beat Chhattisgarh by 8 wickets

Maharashtra batsman Kedar Jadhav struck an unbeaten half-century and lead his team to victory against Chhattisgarh in their Elite Group 'C' game of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 tournament here on Tuesday.

Jadhav hit 84 runs off 45 balls and was assisted by Naushad Shaikh, who hit a fine half-century as well, as the two batsmen took their team home after some early blows.

While Kedar Jadhav hammered five fours and as many sixes, Naushad Shaikh struck 10 boundaries and two maximums in his knock.

Opting to bat at the FB Colony ground in Vadodara, Chhattisgarh posted a mammoth 192 for five on the board, and Maharashtra seemed to be in trouble at 30 for 2, having lost openers Ruturaj Gaikwad (15) and skipper Rahul Tripathi (14) cheaply.

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.

The two batsmen stitched together a 166-run



stand for the third wicket and took the game away from Chhattisgarh.

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.