Mushtaq Ali Twenty20: Punjab demolish 'weak' Assam

MUMBAI: Assam went on a suicidal spree, top-edging their way to a pre-quarterfinal defeat against Punjab in the second match of the Mushtaq Ali Twenty20 tournament, at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on Friday.
Sent in to bat, Assam appeared clueless against a very ordinary-looking Punjab attack, and on a wicket that possessed no dangers. Yet, barring a resolute 48 off 52 balls by opener Dheeraj Jadhav who held on to one end, the rest of the line-up looked in great hurry to pack up the game.Sibsankar Roy was the second-highest scorer after Jadhav, at 27. Assam managed 116/9 and that too at the cost of some very sloppy fielding and a butter-fingered approach on the part of Punjab.
However, when it came to the chase, the Punjab top-order cruised their way through, reaching the target losing just one wicket and with nine overs to spare. Sarul Kanwar (47) and Gurkeerat Singh (62) came up with an aggressive century stand to overhaul Assam's score in just 11 overs and remained unbeaten till the end. Medium pacer Abu Nechim took the only wicket for Assam.
Earlier, Mandeep Singh and VRV Singh grabbed five wickets between them to make things difficult for Assam. Mandeep, however, remained guilty of dropping a sitter off Harbhajan's bowling that could've added to the off-spinner's solitary wicket in what turned out to be another dry spell.
During the chase, Kanwar, 47 off 24 balls with eight fours and a six, and Gurkeerat, 62 off 38 balls with 2 sixes and 10 fours, took good advantage of Assam's bowling weaknesses. Punjab will take on Madhya Pradesh in the quarterfinals at the BKC ground on March 25.
Brief Scores:
Assam 116-9 in 20 overs (Dheeraj Jadhav 48, Sibsankar Roy 27; Mandeep Singh 3/22, VRV Singh 2/10) lost to Punjab 118-1 in 11 overs (Sarul Kanwar 47*, Gurkeerat Singh 62*) by 9 wickets