Rajasthan down Mumbai, eye final berth

KOLKATA: Rajasthan added another big scalp in their prized collection to take pole position in the race for a final berth from Group A of the Mushtaq Ali T20 meet. Having beaten Jharkhand and Karnataka earlier in matches, unfancied Rajasthan made it three-onthree when they humbled Mumbai by 17 runs at Eden Gardens on Wednesday.
Mumbai's season, on the other hand, went from bad to worse.Beaten by an innings by Karnataka in the quarterfinal of the Ranji Trophy, the heavyweights of Indian domestic cricket suffered their second loss in three T20 games to rule themselves out of contention for Friday's title clash.
It will be a 'shootout' between Rajasthan and Punjab on Thursday, with the former having an edge thanks to their superior net run-rate (NRR). Punjab, with 2 victories and a NRR of 0.024, must win by a big margin, while Rajasthan (NRR 0.782) can go through even if they lose, provided they avoid a hammering.
In a must-win game, Mumbai got the start they wanted, capturing three wickets in the space of four balls to leave Rajasthan gasping at 12/3. The third-wicket pair of 18-yearold Mahipal Lomror (74 off 55 balls, 4x4, 4x6) and Chetan Bist (41 off 35 balls, 3x4, 2x6) repaired the damage to an extent with an 86-run association, but Mumbai still had things under control at the 14-over mark as Rajasthan reached 98 for 4.
The last six overs shifted the momentum Rajasthan's way as they plundered 77 runs, thanks to a blinder from the little-known Tajinder Singh Dhillon (43 off 17 balls, 6x4, 2x6). The 25-year-old Tajinder showed good cricketing sense in lifting the ball over the straight field even as Mumbai bowlers tried to cramp him for space.
The 19th over defined Tajinder's innings, with the right-hander smacking two fours and two sixes in the longoff and long-on region off Shivam Dubey to give Rajasthan a fighting total.
Mumbai were very much in the hunt at 53/0 at the end of six Powerplay overs. The exit of bespectacled opener Jay Bista (29 off 188, 2x4, 2x6) slowed them down, but it was Tajinder's double blow in the 12th over - the reliable Siddhesh Lad (8) and skipper Aditya Tare (2) - which hurt Mumbai the most. Both were soft dismissals, Lad missing a reverse sweep to be leg-before and Tare getting a leading edge to be caught and bowled.
The efforts of opener Akhil Herwadkar (68 off 51 balls, 6x4, 3x6) and Suryakumar Yadav (39 off 23, 3x4, 2x6) were not enough as Mumbai kept losing wickets after the 15th over.
Brief scores
Rajasthan 175/6 in 20 overs (M Lomror 74, Tajinder Singh 43, C Bist 41; D Kulkarni 3/35). Mumbai 158/8 in 20 overs (A Herwadkar 68, S Yadav 39; D Chahar 3/27, Tajinder 2/21, Khaleel Ahmed 2/41). Rajasthan won by 17 runs.
Tamil Nadu 129/9 in 20 overs (Vijay Shankar 27, S Aniruda 37; Kanishk Seth 3/26, Amir Gani 2/16) lost to Bengal 134/3 in 16.2 overs (Sudip Chatterjee 51, Writtick Chatterjee 44) by seven wickets.
Karnataka 201/4 in 20 ovs (Karun Nair 100, P Deshpande 56) bt Jharkhand 78 all out in 14.2 ovs (Vikash Singh 25; MP Krishna 2/8, S Aravind 2/6, A Mithun 2/ 23, J Sucith 2/13) by 123 runs