Delhi progress after Bhatia blitz

Rajat Bhatia looted 30 off 10 balls to engineer a five-wicket win for Delhi, who progressed into the next round of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy after extending their unbeaten streak to five matches. Services could not muster enough momentum with Varun Sood leading the bowling effort with 2 for 26, and was backed up by his team-mates who overhauled a target of 145 with ease.

A 45-run second-wicket stand between Mithun Manhas (31) and Milind Kumar (32) kept the chase on course. However, tension mounted when Services claimed three wickets for 18 runs, largely due to the efforts of medium-pacer Sumit Singh. His 3 for 24 were the best figures of the match, but Bhatia wrest control back with five fours and a six to finish the game off with ten balls to spare and without their captain Gautam Gambhir needing to bat.

Delhi was also efficient with the ball after losing the toss as they refused the top-order batsmen from taking advantage of their starts. Yashpal Singh, the captain, top-scored for Services with 39 off 32 balls but the regular wickets at the other end limited his strokeplay. A few handy runs in the death overs pushed the total to respectable, but not match-winning levels.

Haryana endured a brave rearguard from Rishi Dhawan to complete a seven-wicket victory over Himachal Pradesh and go through to the next round.

Dhawan watched his team-mates follow one after the other back to the pavilion while essaying a brilliant 65 off 44 balls that turned 39 for 5 into a surprising 146. Aside from him only two batsmen could reach double-figures, with Sumeet Verma providing dogged support during a 69-run stand for the sixth wicket. Harshal Patel accounted for three of the top four, while Joginder Sharma and Kuldeep Hooda claimed two wickets each.

Guntashveer Singh provided the decisive innings for Haryana and the other batsmen were quite successful batting around him. The 20-year old, in his debut season, fell two short of consecutive half-centuries, striking six fours and a six.

Punjab denied Jammu and Kashmir their first win of the tournament by sneaking home in a Super-Over finish after a tied match in Mohali. Adil Reshi struck three fours in five balls for J&K but they lost both their wickets off the other two balls he faced, meaning they didn't bat out their entire Super Over. Punjab did, and chased down their target of 13, with Himanshu Chawla scoring 10 off four balls.

Chasing 145, J&K were coasting at 132 for 3 in the 17th over before they collapsed in spectacular fashion. Starting with the dismissal of their captain Parvez Rasool - who had made 52 off 39 balls and put on 82 with Veemarsh Kaw and 39 with Abid Nabi for the third and fourth wickets - J&K lost their last seven wickets for 12 runs, in the space of 19 balls. Four of these were run-outs, and three of the run-outs came in the last over.

Having chosen to bat, Punjab struggled to up their run-rate for most of their innings, and were 123 for 8 when they lost Rahul Sharma in the 19th over. But they scored 21 off the last eight balls of the innings, with their wicketkeeper Gitansh Khera finishing unbeaten on 37 off 22, with four fours and a six. Rasool was J&K's star with the ball too, with figures of 3 for 17 in his four overs.