Karnataka sneaked through to the semi-finals of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 on November 18 after winning a thrilling quarterfinal encounter with Bengal. The South Indian giants clinched a Super Over victory against their Eastern rivals, holding their nerves in an exciting knock-out fixture.
A direct hit from skipper Manish Pandey found No.9 Akash Deep short of his crease as the batter went across to complete the run which Bengal needed off the last ball to secure a win. Pandey’s exhilarating throw took the game to the Super Over, where Karnataka dismissed two of the Bengal batters while conceding just 5 runs. It took them only two balls to chase those down, as Manish himself hit a giant six.
Both teams levelled up on 160. For Karnataka, Karun Nair’s knock of 55 off 29 was the backbone to their innings. It kept them in the hunt when things could’ve easily been worse. Rohan Kadam with 30 was the next highest scorer.
Miserly spells from Akash Deep (1/23) and Sayan Ghosh (1/27) kept Karnataka down to 160/5. But an indifferent batting performance from Bengal meant that they never really made it a no-contest. Like with Karnataka, only one Bengal batter crossed the fifty-run mark.
But unlike Karun, Writtick Chatterjee took 40 balls to make his 51. Ritwik Chowdhury (36* off 18) with his quickfire knock kept Bengal in the game but in the end they succumbed to the pressure.
Darshan MB (3/26) and Jagadeesha Suchith (2/24) were the stars with the ball for Karnataka. KC Cariappa (0/21) supported them well.
Other three quarterfinals held in Delhi were more straightforward. Tamil Nadu came out on top against Kerala in a high-scoring game where they chased down the opposition’s 181/4 with three balls to spare and five wickets still intact.
Sai Sudharsan top-scored for TN with a 46 off 31 but it was the spread of useful thirties from Hari Nishanth (32), skipper Vijay Shankar (33) and Sanjay Yadav (32), plus the end-overs blitz from Shahrukh Khan (19*), that propelled them to a win.
Unnikrishnan Manukrishnan (3/26) bowled superbly but he was the only Kerala bowler not to prove expensive. Unlike the Tamil Nadu attack where Sanjay Yadav (2/23), Murugan Ashwin (1/20) and Sai Kishore (1/31) kept things tight. TN made sure Kerala never went out of their reach, not even with Vishnu Vinod (65*) and Rohan Kunnummal (51) making fifties.
Vidarbha had the easiest of times in their quarterfinal, defeating Rajasthan by 9 wickets after their shockingly made just 84 at the loss of 8 wickets in their 20 overs.
In the last of the quarters, Hyderabad ended with a 30-run win over Gujarat after making 158/5 batting first, thanks to a stand-out batting act from Tilak Verma (75) and an all-round bowling display, including wicket-taking spells from Telukupalli Ravi Teja (3/27) and Chama V Milind (2/28).
