Syed Mushtaq Ali: Vidarbha reaches semi-finals after beating Rajasthan by 9 wickets

New Delhi. Vidarbha beat Rajasthan by nine wickets to enter the semifinals of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 tournament here on Thursday. After winning the toss and choosing to go bowling, Vidarbha restricted Rajasthan to 84 for eight in 20 overs and then recorded a win with 5.1 overs to spare thanks to starter Atharva Taide’s 40 who missed 42 balls. Vidarbha scored 87 runs in 14.5 overs.

Rajasthan lost the grounds to starters Yash Kothari (01) and Arijit Gupta (00) in the first two overs, taking the team’s score to two out of two. Fast pitcher Darshan Nalakande (1 of eight) followed by captain Mahipal Lomror (11), while young fast pitcher Yash Thakur (2 of 24) sent Deepak Hooda (03) to the flag to score Rajasthan 18 of four.

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Vidarbha bowlers took wickets at regular intervals and did not let Rajasthan batsmen play freely. Kamlesh Nagarkoti played a major role in pushing the team’s score past 80 runs by playing 39 innings on 48 balls. For Vidarbha, in addition to Nalkande and Thakur, Lalit Yadav took 1 of 12, while left spinner Akshay Karnewar took 1 of 7 in his four overs. Player Akshay Wakhare took one of 21, while left-arm pitcher Atharv took one of nine.

Chasing the target, Vidarbha got off to a great start adding 63 runs for Atharva and Ganesh Satish’s first wicket (28 on 33 balls). Both Atharva and Satish hit four fours each on their innings and had no trouble facing the Rajasthan bowlers. Satish returned to the pavilion in the eleventh second, after which Atharva along with captain Akshay Wadkar (11 not eliminated) led the team to the finish.

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