Patel bowls Odisha to tense win
A round-up of the East Zone matches of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy played on April 4, 2014
ESPNcricinfo staff
04-Apr-2014
Left-arm spinner Paresh Patel struck three times in the last over of the match to give Odisha a narrow, four-run win over Jharkhand at Eden Gardens.
Chasing 120, Jharkhand were within eight runs of the target when Patel struck off the second ball of the final over, dismissing Kumar Deobrat. Two balls later, he had Sarfaraz Ashraf out but Jharkhand were still within sight of the target, their hopes resting on Virat Singh, who had anchored their chase until then. Off the last ball of the match, those hopes were dashed when Virat fell for 40, with Jharkhand a mere five runs short of the target.
That Jharkhand managed to get this close was due, in no small measure, to Virat and Deobrat. The side were struggling at 34 for 3 in the eighth over and had also lost a stumbling Saurabh Tiwary after a 15-ball 4. Virat and Deobrat then lifted the scoring with 78 for the fourth wicket in a little more than 11 overs and nearly dragged the side back on track until Patel's over.
Earlier, Ashraf's maiden T20 five-for played a big role in keeping Odisha to 119 for 8. The left-arm spinner, playing his third T20 for the state, ran through the batting line-up, causing most damage in the 15th and 19th overs, where he picked up two and three wickets respectively.
Wriddhiman Saha's second successive fifty, an aggressive 37-ball 71, set up Bengal's 72-run win over Tripura at Jadavpur University Complex, Kolkata.
Saha vindicated his side's decision to bat first, slamming nine fours and three sixes in his innings and adding 79 with Manoj Tiwary for the second wicket to help Bengal recover from a shaky start. Although Bengal lost a few quick wickets after that, a 40-run partnership between Pankaj Shaw and Sanjib Sanyal, which came off the last two overs, helped the side reach 196 for 5.
Tripura's chances of chasing down that mammoth target had dimmed by the fourth over when Ashok Dinda and Pritam Chakraborty reduced them to 8 for 3. Kaushal Acharjee lifted their score with a 36-ball 41, even as Bengal experimented with nine bowlers, before Tripura's innings ended at 124 for 8.