Saurashtra thrash Mumbai in T20 tournament; Raval sparkles

Ahmedabad: An all-round performance by Kuldip Raval propelled Saurashtra to a comprehensive 60-run victory over Mumbai in a West Zone leg match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament here today.

This was the Ranji champions` third successive defeat in as many days in the tournament. Raval scored 53 off 26 balls, helped by eight fours and a six. His whirlwind knock enabled Saurashtra to reach a fighting 152 for 7 in 20 overs. He also took two wickets, giving away 23 runs in four overs. Unable to get a good start, the visitors kept losing wickets at a regular interval and were skittled out for just 92 in 18.5 overs. Mumbai play their last match against Maharashtra on Thursday. Electing to bat first, Saurashtra started off cautiously, adding 27 runs for the first wicket in 4.4 overs before captain Jaydev Shah (13 off 12 balls) departed. He was caught by Shoaib Shaikh off the bowling of right-arm medium spacer Kshemal Waingankar. Soon, they lost the other opener, Bhushan Chauhan, who was caught by Waingankar off the bowling of captain Abhishek Nayar for 15 runs off 20 balls. Saurashtra were in trouble at 85-5 in 14.1 overs before Raval joined forces with Chirag Jani to add 45 runs for the sixth wicket. Some late hitting propelled Saurashtra to 152 in their allotted quota of overs. Chasing 153 for a win, Mumbai were reduced to 20-3 in the first six overs, losing Aditya Tare (3), Praful Waghela (5) and Siddesh Lad (7) in the powerplay overs. Siddharth Chitnis (15) was the top-scorer, while Nayar hit 12 runs. For Saurashtra, pacer Siddharth Trivedi took three wickets for seven runs in three overs, while Jani and Raval took two wickets apiece. Saurashtra, who trounced Maharashtra by 15 runs last night, next play Baroda on Thursday. PTI