A star-studded Mumbai suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Meghalaya in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2019-20, going down by six wickets against a team that came into being only last season.
Meghalaya, who have been a mid-table Plate League team in their brief existence, first restricted Mumbai to 157 for 6, and then chased the target down in 19.2 overs, riding on half-centuries from two of their professionals, Dwarka Ravi Teja (61* off 45) and Sanjay Yadav (55 off 44).
It completed an excellent day for Ravi Teja, who had got the wicket of Shreyas Iyer when Meghalaya bowled.
Mumbai had gotten off to a brisk start, with the opening duo of Jay Bista and Aditya Tare putting on a good stand once again with 73 in 8.2 overs, but a power-packed batting line-up was strangled in the second half of the innings. All of Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav and Siddhesh Lad could barely go at above a run a ball.
Both openers fell to medium pacer Swarajeet Das in the ninth over. Thereafter, Abhay Negi, Amiangshu Sen and Ravi Teja all struck, to deny Mumbai momentum or a big partnership.
Puneet Bisht got Meghalaya’s chase off to a brisk start with 23 off 12, but Mumbai’s opening ball duo of Dhawal Kulkarni and Shardul Thakur struck early to reduce them to 41 for 3 in the fourth over. That’s when Ravi Teja and Yadav got together in a stand that yielded 92 runs in just 12.3 overs.
Although Yadav fell with 25 runs needed off 23 balls, Ravi Teja stayed till the end to steer the team home.
This was Mumbai’s first loss in the tournament, and while the result didn’t affect their place at the top of Group D table, but narrowed their lead.
Tamil Nadu bowlers rout Tripura
In a Group B match, Tamil Nadu restricted Tripura to just 79 for 8 in 20 overs, before chasing down the target in 12.1 overs with eight wickets in the bag.
Tripura’s score was a lot more than they looked like getting when they had been reduced to 9 for 7 in 5.1 overs, in danger of being bowled out for a record low total. However, No.8 Saurabh Das and No.9 Neelambuj Vats both hit career-best scores to ensure ignominy was averted. Das made 44, falling off the last ball of the match, while Vats was unbeaten on 28, with their partnership worth 70 runs.
For Tamil Nadu, the new-ball duo of R Sai Kishore and T Natarajan did the majority of the damage. Sai Kishore had 4 for 6 in four overs, while Natarajan had 3 for 4.
Tamil Nadu sent Washington Sundar to open the batting, perhaps with a view to get the target quickly and improve their net run-rate, and Washington smacked 46 off 32. He was out with just four runs needed for victory and the promoted M Ashwin fell next over, before Tamil Nadu completed victory.
They now have 16 points, the same as Vidarbha, but a higher net run-rate and are therefore at the top of the Group B table.