Heavyweights fall by the wayside

Baroda thrash Delhi by seven wickets,Punjab get past Mumbai easily to reach final

Despite being the most unfancied of all domestic tournaments in the country,the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy was one that both Mumbai and Delhi were desperately vying to lift this season. This was,after all,the last chance for Ajit Agarkar & Co to redeem some pride in what has been a drab season for the Mumbai team. As for Delhi,the T20 crown would have helped the Rajat Bhatia-led outfit regain their stature as one of the prominent teams on the Indian domestic circuit,having been unable to lift any silverware in the last four years.

And,going into their respective semifinals,not many would have bet against the arch-rivals setting up a face-off in the title clash. With a dominant performance in the quarterfinal stage,both Delhi and Punjab were expected to have it easy in their Mondays matches at the Mumbai Cricket Associations (MCA) BKC ground. But their opponents had other plans.

Punjab and Baroda played party-poopers to hand their fancied opponents a premature exit. And more than the victories themselves,it was the convincing fashion in which they did it that would have been an embarrassment for the big guns. It started with Baroda,led by Kedar Devdhars breathtaking 40-ball 96,chasing down a stiff target of 169 against Delhi with five wickets in hand and almost three overs to spare. Later,Punjab stunned the hosts with the same victory margin,in 19 overs,their bowlers restricting Mumbais powerful batting line-up to 122/9 in their 20 overs.

One-sided contests

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Delhi would not have expected such a comprehensive defeat at the innings break,sitting pretty after opener Shikhar Dhawan who scored a 43-ball 62 and useful contributions from the middle-order had given them a sizable total on a two-paced BKC wicket. Even the presence of Yusuf Pathan and Ambati Rayudu in the Baroda line-up would not have been much of a worry. Ironically,by the time Yusuf walked out to the middle,his team required only 20 runs for victory with over seven overs to spare,while Rayudu didnt even get a hit. The damage had already been done by 22-year-old Devdhar and opener Aditya Waghmode,who shared a blistering 143-run stand off just 66 deliveries.

For Punjab,the wreckers-in-chief were the in-form Manpreet Gony (3/32) and leg-spinner Rahul Sharma (2/15),restricting Mumbai to a sub-standard score. Only Ajinkya Rahane and Suryakumar Yadav managed to cross the 20-run mark,the rest of Mumbai batting crumbling under pressure. Chasing a meagre 123,Punjab dominated the batting as well.

Apart from a simple offering from opener Chandan Madan to Yadav at mid-on which was grassed early on,there were few chances for Mumbai to make a comeback on the field. And Madan made the most of his escape,scoring a match-winning 44-ball 55 to take his team through to a maiden T20 final.

Brief scores: Delhi 169/9 (S Dhawan 62,M Manhas 23,R Bhatia 27; B Bhatt 3/50,Y Pathan 2/30,M Vahora 2/24); Baroda 173/3 (A Waghmode 60,K Devdhar 96; P Negi 2/39)

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Mumbai 122/9 (A Rahane 21,Suryakumar Yadav 20,W Jaffer 13; M Gony 3/32,R Sharma 2/15); Punjab 124/5 (C Madan 55,Mandeep Singh 22; I Abdulla 3/20)