Goa bowlers set up impressive win over Rajasthan in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy

Goa may have been ruled out of qualifying for the knockout phase but the darkhorse spoiled Rajasthan's party with a 37-run victory in a Group D match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 tournament in Indore on Sunday.
Batting first, Goa scored only 154-7. However, it were the bowlers who earned a well-deserved victory for Goa as Rajasthan were bundled out for 117 in 19.3 overs.
With this victory, Goa are fourth with eight points in their kitty. They have won two and lost two. Saurashtra, Rajasthan and hosts Madhya Pradesh have won three matches from four with 12 points each, which ruled Goa out, even if they win their last match against bottom-placed Vidarbha on 19.
Right-arm-medium pacer Vijesh Prabhudesai took three wickets for 28 runs in his 3.3 overs, while Lakshay Garg and Maliksab Sirur returned with two wickets each.
With not many runs to defend, pacer Lakshay castled opener Bharat Sharma, while hard-working Felix Alemao accounted for Rajesh Bishnoi.
Vijesh joined the party when he trapped Ankit Lamba (21) in front of the wicket to leave Rajasthan reeling at 44-3 in the powerplay.
Right-arm off-spinner Maliksab, who has been one of the most economical bowlers for Goa, quickly got rid of Arjit Gupta and Tanveer Ul-Haq, while left-arm orthodox Darshan Misal grabbed Rahul Chahar's wicket. Vijesh quickly dismissed Ravi Bishnoi and Aniket Choudhary to register an unlikely win for Goa.
Earlier, Goa changed their opening batting combination and asked wicketkeeper-batsman Eknath Kerkar and Aditya Kaushik to start. The ploy worked as they put up 39 runs in 4.5 overs before Aditya fell to Aniket Choudhary.
Snehal Kauthankar failed to make the most of his promotion before captain Amit Verma's 22 provided some stability to the Goa innings.
With many allrounders in their ranks, Goa went for the runs. It was Suyash Prabhudesai who chipped in with 35 off 23 and a run-a-ball 15 from Darshan took Goa past 150.
Goa will now hope to finish their campaign with a win against Vidarbha.