Kolkata: His days as one of India’s leading seamers may be well past him but Bhuvneshwar Kumar continues to deliver handsomely in domestic cricket, evidence of which was his impressive outing in Uttar Pradesh’s 40-run win over Chandigarh in the Syed Musthtaq Ali Trophy here Thursday.
The 35-year-old seasoned bowler returned excellent figures of 3/23 in four overs to help his side restrict Chandigarh to 172 for eight after UP posted a competitive 212 for seven in their allotted 20 overs at the Eden Gardens.
Sameer Rizvi top-scored for UP with a blistering 70-run knock that came off just 42 balls and contained six fours and three sixes.
Opener Madhav Kaushik struck a brisk 67 off 41 balls, and found the fence seven times seven times while clearing it twice in the Group B game.
Rizvi and Kaushik were involved in a third wicket partnership of 86 runs, which laid the foundation for UP’s total in excess of 200.
Siddarth Yadav looked in great touch until he was run out by Nehal Pajni for a quick-fire 12-ball 28 with three fours and two sixes.
After the dismissal of Rizvi and Kaushik, India’s T20I specialist Rinku Singh blazed away to a 10-ball 24 to help prop up the UP innings after Chandigarh opted to bowl first.
Rajasthan Royals seamer Sandeep Sharma was the most successful bowler for Chandigarh, finishing with fine figures of 4/26, including taking the wickets of Kaushik and Rinku.
In reply, Chandigarh were off to a disastrous start as they lost two wickets with just 19 runs on the board, Bhuvneshwar removing Pajni for a nought.
However, opener Manan Vohra kept Chandigarh in hunt with his explosive batting that fetched him 61 runs from only 35 balls, and which contained six boundaries and three sixes.
But Kartik Tyagi removed him at a crucial juncture to leave Chandigarh at 100 for three in the 11th over.
Wicketkeeper Nikhil Thakur (32 off 28 balls) and Amrit Lubana (30 off 23 balls) carried on the fight, but their team fell short by plenty of runs in the end.
Brief scores:
Uttar Pradesh 212/7 in 20 overs (Sameer Rizvi 70, Madhav Kaushik 67; Sandeep Sharma 4/26) beat Chandigarh 172/8 in 20 overs (Manan Vohra 61; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 3/23) by 40 runs.
Jammu and Kashmir 112 all out in 19.3 overs (Shubham Khajuria 35; Nitin Sai Yadav 3/17, Milind 3/31) lost to Hyderabad 115/6 in 15.1 overs (Tanay Thyagarajan 50; Murugan Ashwin 2/16, Yudhvir Singh Charak 2/18) by 4 wickets.
Bihar 180/7 in 20 overs (S Gani 60, Vaibhav Suryavanshi 46, Akash Raj 40; Deepraj Gaonkar 4/38) lost to Goa 184/5 in 19.5 overs (Suyash Prabhudessai 79, Kashyap Bakhale 64; Suraj Kashyap 3/24) by 5 wickets.
