A round-up of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Super League games played on April 5, 2015
ESPNcricinfo staff05-Apr-2015 Group B Siddarth Kaul and Mandeep Singh delivered combined figures of 8-0-32-6 to skittle out Rajasthan for 101 and lead Punjab to the final. Mandeep followed up his career-best figures of 3 for 21 with an 18-ball 29, as Punjab chased down the target with six wickets in hand.Having opted to bat, Rajasthan were rattled early and were reduced to 25 for 3, with Shubek Gill dismissing Ankit Lamba and Arjit Gupta in the space of three balls. Sourabh Chauhan (13), Ashok Menaria (18), Rajesh Bishnoi (16), Puneet Yadav (12) all got starts, but none managed a substantial contribution, as Rajasthan slumped to 96 for 8, Mandeep dismantling the middle order. Kaul then wiped off the tail with a double-strike in the penultimate over.Punjab themselves endured a top-order wobble, losing both their openers to Pankaj Singh inside three overs, but Mandeep and Taruwar Kohli added 41 to steady the chase. Though both perished at the brink of victory, Gurkeerat Singh (27*) and Himanshu Chawla (12) completed the formalities by the 17th over.Fifties from Sagar Kerkar and Shashank Singh guided Mumbai to a consolation win over Hyderabad in Cuttack.Having opted to bat, Mumbai had an early setback when Ravi Kiran was bowled Jay Bista for 4 off 11 balls. Sufiyan Shaikh, though, made a brisk 41 to rebuild the innings before he was dismissed by Hanuma Vihari. Sagar Kerkar and Sashank Singh then took charge of the innings, crashing 92 together in only 7.3 overs. The stand ended when Shashank was run out in the final over, but Siddharth Chitnis took 12 off the last three balls to power Mumbai to 186.Vihari led Hyderabad’s chase with 81 off 50 balls but lacked substantial support from the other end with the next best score being Bavanaka Sandeep’s 20. Sidak Singh and Prathamesh Dake picked up three wickets each to dent the chase as Hyderabad fell 25 short of the target. Group A Three-wicket hauls from Rush Kalaria and Rohit Dahiya bowled Andhra out for 127, setting Gujarat on the path to the final after four wins in as many Super League matches.The Andhra top order was wrecked as they fell to 36 for 3 after being put in. Captain Mohammad Kaif then counterattacked his way to 58 off 46 balls, aided by twenties from Naren Reddy and Jyothi Sai Krishna. However, Andhra’s hopes of posting a competitive total faded away, as they went from 110 for 4 to 127 all out, Kalaria and Dahiya triggering the collapse.Smith Patel ensured Gujarat’s chase got off to a positive start, despite the early loss of Priyank Kirit Panchal. Manpreet Juneja too did not last long, but Patel carried on to make 51 off 48 balls before being undone by KV Sasikanth in the 15th over. By then he had hit nine fours and put on 63 for the third wicket with Rujul Bhatt.Rujul remained unbeaten on 44 off 25 balls to seal the chase with seven wickets in hand.Pankaj Jaiswal returned impressive figures of 3.4-0-12-4 to help Himachal Pradesh successfully defend 145 against Madhya Pradesh in Bhubaneswar. He was ably backed up by Shresth Nirmohi’s 3 for 20 as HP prevailed by eight runs. The result, however, was inconsequential, with both teams out of the running for a place in the final.MP were rocked early in the chase, courtesy Jaiswal, who removed Jajaj Saxena and Zafar Ali for ducks. This grew into full-fledged trouble when Mohnish Mishra and Udit Birla departed in successive overs. However, Parth Sahani (47) combined well with Harpreet Singh (40) to bail them out with a rapid 79-run partnership.Another collapse, though, meant they lost their last five wickets for only 27, Jaiswal accounting for Sahani and No. 10 Puneet Datey in the final over.After being inserted, HP lost Abhimanyu Rana to Yogesh Rawat in the second over, but Raghav Dhawan and Prashant Chopra got together, adding 75 to stabilise the innings. Paras Dogra (19 off 13 balls) and Bipul Sharma (15 off 5 balls) then scrambled some quick runs to steer their side to 145, which proved enough at the end.