Shubman Gill celebrated his place in the national T20 squad for the tour of New Zealand with his maiden century in the format as Punjab beat Karnataka by nine runs to reach the quarter-finals of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy here on Monday. Opener Gill scored a career-best 126 before being dismissed off the last ball of the 19th over as Punjab posted 225 for four. In reply, two-time champions and last year’s runners-up Karnataka could only manage 216 for six.
Punjab will take on Himachal Pradesh in the semi-finals at the Eden Gardens on Thursday. Gill, who is preparing to make his T20I debut on the upcoming tour of New Zealand, took full advantage of the life gift he got from wicketkeeper Lavneet Sisodia for 34 runs. He completed his half-century in 30 balls and then reached a century in just 49 balls. He hit 11 fours and nine sixes in his innings. Gill dominated after Punjab had lost the wickets of Abhishek Sharma and Prabhsimran Singh early on.
He shared a 151-run partnership with Anmolpreet Singh (59 off 43 balls). Sanvir Singh also played a good role in Gill, who scored an unbeaten 27 off 13 balls. Karnataka had a very poor start and the team lost three wickets for 18 runs. Experienced Manish Pandey handled the team with 45 off 29 balls while Abhinav Manohar played an unbeaten 62 off 29 balls. Manoj Bhandage (25 in nine balls) and Krishnappa Gautam (30 not out in 14 balls) took the team closer to the target but could not save from defeat.
Delhi, however, suffered a one-run defeat while chasing a target of 158 against Vidarbha at the Jadavpur University II Campus ground in Salt Lake. Yash Thakur ensured Vidarbha’s victory by dismissing Lalit Yadav (17) and Lakshya Thareja (04) within three balls of the final over. Vidarbha will take on Mumbai in the semi-finals at the Eden Gardens. Chasing a target of 158 runs, Delhi needed 26 runs in the last two overs.
16 runs were scored in the 19th over of Umesh Yadav’s innings. However, Thakur took two wickets in the final over to give Vidarbha victory. Earlier, Shikhar Dhawan scored 37 runs and shared a 48-run partnership with Himmat Singh (27). Himmat became Thakur’s first victim while Dhawan was dismissed by Aditya Sarwate (2 for 16) after which Delhi lost wickets at regular intervals. Vidarbha had earlier scored 157 for five with Akshay Wadkar’s 63 off 53 balls.
Bengal’s team failed to defend the target of 200 runs and suffered a four-wicket defeat against Himachal. For Bengal, Shahbaz Ahmed scored 59 runs in 32 balls as the team posted a score of 199 runs for six wickets. Himachal in reply registered a final ball win with Akash Vashisht’s unbeaten 76 off 42 balls. Nikhil Gangta also scored 50 runs in 37 balls. Meanwhile, Mumbai beat Saurashtra by two wickets. For the team, Shreyas Iyer made 40 off 30 balls while Shivam Dubey scored 25 not out. Saurashtra scored 166 for eight with a 25-ball 61 from Prerak Mankad. Mumbai registered a victory by scoring 168 for eight in the last ball of the innings.
