Baroda maul Maharashtra in T20 match; Yusuf Pathan shines

RAJKOT: Yusuf Pathan cracked a fine 72 and helped Baroda enter the knockout stage by thrashing Maharashtra by 68 runs in the final round West Zone T20 league match at SCA Stadium on Tuesday.
Electing to bat, Baroda amassed 192 runs for the loss of six wickets and then bundled out Maharashtra at 124 for eight.
The hosts secured four points and booked a place in the knockout stage along with Mumbai.
Kedar Devdhar and Ambati Rayudu gave Baroda a solid start, making 25 and 24 runs respectively, before Yusuf took charge and smashed 72, facing only 32 balls, with the help of eight fours and four sixes.
Aditya Waghmode contributed 32, while Irfan Pathan remained unbeaten on 20.
For Maharashtra, Akshay Darekar took two wickets giving away 29 runs.
Chasing a victory target of 193, Maharashtra were restricted at 124 for eight. Karen Nande (29) and Ganesh Gaikwad (22) were the main contributors for the hosts.
For Baroda, Irfan Pathan and Murtuza Vohra shared two wickets each conceding 23 and 10 runs respectively.
Mumbai, Baroda and Saurashtra have won three games each, but the first two teams managed to qualify for the next round of the tournament on the basis of net run rate.