Indore: Gujarat stunned Punjab in the finals of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Championship and won the match by six wickets at the Holkar Stadium on Sunday. Asad Pathan and Manprit Juneja batted well to help Gujarat clinch the T20 affair.
Punjab, after winning the toss, elected to bat first. But they had very shaky start which put them in a big trouble as they were four wickets down with just 20 runs on the board in the first six overs of the innings. But it was the cameo of Amitoze Singh, which took them to a decent total of 122 for the loss of eight wickets. Amitoze scored brilliant 49 runs off just 42 balls and was complimented by wicket-keeper batsman Chandan Madan who contributed 25 runs to the team total.
For Gujarat, it was their express bowler Jasprit Bumrah who gave the early blows to Punjab to restrict them to under-par total. He picked up three wickets in his quota of four overs and gave away just 14 runs. Mehul Patel also did well to grab couple of wickets, while Rohit Dahiya and Rakesh Dhurv ended up picking up one wicket each.
In reply of Punjab’s 123, Gujarat didn’t have an ideal start as they lost an early wicket of their captain Parthiv Patel at the score of just two runs. But opener Asad Pathan and Niraj Patel put on some good fight and added 50 runs. Asad scored 32 runs while Niraj added 14 runs to his name before they were dismissed in the eighth over of the innings. Gujarat was still looking vulnerable as they were 52 for 3.
However Manprit Juneja and Abdulahad Malik played without taking much risk and put on the 64 runs stand to keep Gujarat in dominant position. Juneja departed after scoring 31 runs but Abdulahad kept his calm on the other end. Akshar Patel played some exquisite shots in the end to Gujarat to a thumping victory with a six and 13 balls to spare.
Brief Scores:
Punjab 122 for 8 in 20 overs (Amitoze Singh 49; Jasprit Bumrah 3/14).
Gujarat: 128 for 4 in 17.5 overs (Asad Pathan 32; Rajwinder Singh 2/40).
