Hooda, Garhwal star in Baroda, Rajasthan triumphs

Baroda captain Deepak Hooda's 34-ball 57 helped his team chase down a target of 179 with five wickets in hand against Maharashtra in Rajkot. Hooda's second half-century in the tournament was instrumental in Baroda winning their fourth consecutive game and remain undefeated in the competition.

Earlier, Maharashtra put up a strong batting performance after electing to bat first. A 79-run alliance between Ruturaj Gaikwad, who smashed a 37-ball 52, and captain Rahul Tripathi (30 off 24 balls) propelled Maharashtra to a total of 178 for 6 in 20 overs. Baroda seamer Atit Sheth finished with figures of 3 for 21. In reply, Baroda recovered quickly from the loss of three early wickets thanks to Hooda and handy contributions from Vishnu Solanki (42* off 21) and Swapnil Singh, who retired hurt after a 26-ball 36. Seamer Domnic Muthuswami picked up three wickets for Maharashtra.

A disciplined bowling effort followed by Aditya Garhwal's unbeaten half-century set up Rajasthan's six-wicket win over Vidarbha in Raipur. This was their fourth win in as many games even as Vidarbha lost their first game of the tournament.

After opting to bat, Vidarbha started reasonably well but lost their way in the middle to slump from 70 for 2 to 127 for 7 before their innings eventually petered out to 131 for 8. Rajasthan seamers Aniket Choudhary, Deepak Chahar (2 for 25) and Khaleel Ahmed (2 for 19) picked up five wickets among them. Rajasthan's chase was fairly straightforward as they cruised to their target with two overs to spare.