Syed Mushtaq Ali Twenty20: Delhi edge past Services in one-over eliminator

New Delhi: With its top two stars missing from action, an Unmukt Chand-led Delhi edged past Services in a thrilling one-over eliminator after the Syed Mushtaq Ali Twenty20 match of the North Zone leg ended in a tie at the Palam Ground, here on Saturday.

With regular skipper Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag, who missed his second game due to a reported shoulder pain, sitting out of the game, Delhi were just able to match the Services score of 148 for six in 20 overs after losing nine wickets.

In the Super Over that ensued, Delhi scored 19 for 1, while Services could muster only 5 for the loss of one wicket.

Top-scorer Nitish Rana (48) and opener Aditya Kaushik (43) shared a 77-run second wicket partnership to give a team a good start but the batting fell apart after the two departed.

Shadab Nazar and Lakhan Singh, who bowled just one over, shared three wickets apiece as Delhi lost four wickets in the final over. Lakhan, who bowled the 20th over, was on a hat-trick and also inflicted a run-out to hit Delhi hard.

Earlier electing to bat, Service rode on fifties from Vikas Hathwala (50) and Yashpal Singh (52) to post a fighting score but the Pratik Desai-led side had to witness their third loss in five games.

Brief Scores:

Match 1 - Services 148/6 in 20 overs (Vikas Hathwala 50, Yashpal Singh 52; Vikas Tokas 1-18) lose to Delhi 148/9 in 20 overs (Nitish Rana 48, Aditya Kaushik 43; Shadab Nazar 3-15, Lakhan Singh 3-6).

In the another North Zone leg match, Haryana outplayed Jammu and Kashmir by 24 runs at the Feroz Shah Kotla to hand the Parvez Rasool-led side its fifth loss in as many games.

Put into bat, the Rahul Dewan-led Haryana rode on Sachin Rana's 23-ball 50 to post a formidable 160 for six in 20 overs. Sahil Sharma bagged three wickets while Rasool chipped in with two scalps.

J&K opener Ian Dev Singh hit an unbeaten 55-ball 75, but the rest of the batting failed to counter the Haryana bowlers as they only managed 136 for six.

Jayant Yadav and Sachin Rana bagged two wickets apiece.

After three straight losses, Haryana have turned the tables to register two consecutive wins.

In the final game of the day at Kotla, Punjab thrashed Himachal Pradesh by 97 runs to register their fourth win of the tournament.

Electing to bat, the Harbhajan Singh-led rode on a concerted effort from their batting line-up to post 173 for seven. If Mandeep Singh top-scored with 37 runs, then Himanshu Chawla (30), Yuvraj Singh (23) and Manan Vohra (22) also played their part.

Yuvraj also turned up with his left-arm spin to share three with pace spearhead Sandeep Sharma to skittle out the Bipul Sharma-led Himachal side for a paltry 76 in 15.4 overs.

Brief Scores:

Match 2 - Haryana 160/6 in 20 overs (Sachin Rana 50, Himanshu Rana 24; Sahil Sharma 3-35, Parvez Rasool 2-31) beat Jammu and Kashmir 136/6 in 20 overs (Ian Dev Singh 75 not out; Jayant Yadav 2-23, Sachin Rana 2-24)

Match 3 - Punjab 173/7 in 20 overs (Mandeep Singh 37, Himanshu Chawla 30; Bipul Sharma 3-20) beat Himachal Pradesh 76 all out in 15.4 overs (Pankaj Jaiswal 20, Nikhil Gangta 14; Sandeep Sharma 3-21, Yuvraj Singh 3-26).