After having gone down to Bengal and Vidarbha in their previous two outings, Deepak Hooda-led Rajasthan turned up with an all-round performance as they defeated Jharkhand by 18 runs in a Group D match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy 2023-24 in Chandigarh on Saturday. It is Rajasthan’s first win from three games.
Chasing a moderate total of 161, Jharkhand’s top-order had a tough time facing the seamers. In no time, Virat Singh’s side was reduced to 21/3 in 4.1 overs by left-arm seamers Aniket Choudhary (3-0-16-2) and Khaleel Ahmed (4-0-17-1).
Jharkhand skipper and wicketkeeper batter Kumar Kushagra forged a partnership of 39 runs, but they never looked fluent during the seven overs, when they were together at the crease. Lower-order batter Supriyo Chakraborty’s (38 not out off 21 balls) solo fight proved insufficient and Jharkhand could not go beyond 143/7 in 20 overs.
Rajasthan’s Arafat Khan (4-0-34-2), Deepak Chahar (4-0-32-1) and Rahul Chahar (4-0-30-1) did the damage after the 10 overs.
Earlier, made to bat first, Rajasthan’s top-order that includes Abhijeet Tomar (23 off 14 balls), Mukul Choudhary (35 off 33 balls) and Mahipal Lomror (42 off 36 balls) gave their team a solid start. Later, it was Kunal Singh Rathore whose cameo of 22 off 12 balls took Rajasthan to 161.
In the Group A matches in Jaipur, Chhattisgarh registered a 66-run victory against Meghalaya while Mumbai defeated J&K by 37 runs. Later in the day, Baroda won by five wickets against Haryana and Hyderabad skittled Mizoram by six wickets.
Brief scores: Rajasthan 161/8 in 20 overs (Abhijeet Tomar 23, Mahipal Lomror 42 Kunal Singh Rathore 22; Vikas Singh 2-34, Rahul Shukla 3-23) beat Jharkhand 143/7 in 20 overs (Virat Singh 31, Supriyo Chakraborty 38 not out; Aniket Choudhary 2-16, Arafat Khan 2-34) by 8 runs.
