Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy: UP outclass Baroda to claim maiden T20 title

Uttar Pradesh clinched their maiden SyedMushtaq Ali T20 Trophy with a thumping 38run win over twotime champions Baroda in the final under lights at MumbaisWankhede Stadium on Wednesday nightJust 12 boundaries and no sixes summed up Barodarsquos poor batting show as Uttar Pradesh denied Irfan Pathan amp Co their third Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 title at Mumbais Wankhede Stadium on WednesdayIn return Uttar Pradesh avenged their 201314 loss in the final Baroda were restricted to 1257 in reply to UPrsquos 1637 in 20 oversUttar Pradesh skipper Suresh Rainain action against Baroda during the final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy tournament in Mumbai on Wednesday PicPTIUP overcame several odds including the loss of the toss to put it across thechampions of 201112 and 201314 and win the summit clash infront of 5000 spectatorsThis was UPs ninth straight win in the tournamentincluding five in the preliminary league phase and three morein the super league stage held in this cityAlthough Ankit Rajoot was the pick of the bowlers with 330 the double spin attackof Chinaman bowlerKuldeep Yadav 212 and leggie Piyush Chawla 40160 were the real heroes of UPrsquos 38run win to claim their first domestic T20 trophySoeb Tai was the only Baroda batsman to play a decent knock of 26 not out even as the rest slumpedBaroda never really got going after a runspree in the first couple of overs And Yadav and Chawlarsquos tight line and length further demoralised their chaseBaroda had lost half their side for 84 and thenwere stopped at 125 for 7 wicketsYadavs dismissal of Barodas most successful batsman ofthe tournament the Australiabound Hardik Pandya 13 andDeepak Hooda 15 tilted the game in UPs favourYusuf Pathan known for his bighitting prowess floppedmiserably once again as he crawled to 14 off 27 balls CaptainIrfan Pathan came in at no 7 but by that stage the askingrate had climbed beyond 12 per overAnd when he smacked a full toss to the deep fielder thegame was as good as over for Baroda for whom Soaeb Tai topscored with an unbeaten 26 off 24 balls with 3 foursEarlier put in to bat Uttar Pradesh benefited from somepoor work in the field by Baroda Both their topscoring batsmen opener Gupta and captainRaina benefited from letoffs by the Baroda wicketkeeper Pinal ShahShah dropped Gupta on 5 off Munaf Patel in the secondover and then missed an easy stumping chance off Raina whenthe batsman was on 32 off the bowling of offspinner Tai inthe 16th overUP built their innings around opener Prashanth Guptas49 in 41 balls and captain Suresh Rainas unbeaten 47 in 37balls to post a challenging score of 163 for 7Gupta and Raina whose previous highest score in fivegames in the tournament was 28 put on 60 runs for the secondwicket in 46 balls to lay the platformGupta was also lucky to be caught off a noball when on 17 He and opening partner Samarth Singh gave a brisk start to the innings by putting on 37 in 31 balls before the latter dragged a ball on to his stumpsLater Bhargav Bhatt grabbed the wickets of Gupta and UPsleading scorer Eklavya Dwivedi in three balls at the sametotal of 97 to peg the side backBut Raina though not looking at his fluent best heldone end up and stayed till the end smacking two sixes thesecond over mid wicket off the last ball from Irfan Pathanand two foursBaroda bowlers too did not allow Uttar Pradesh to dominate withUP managing to accumulate only 90 runs in the last 10 overs Baroda also strangulated UP between 11th and 15th overs giving away just 42 runsUttar Pradesh players pose for a group photo with the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy after beating Baroda in Mumbai on Wednesday PicPTIPiyush Chawla played a cameo of 17 in 13 balls after hewas let off one one by Yusuf Pathan at mid on off TaiWhile Munaf Patel was the most economical Baroda bowler 40210 inform Irfan Pathan leaked 44 runs in his four overs only claiming the wicket of tailender Praveen Kumar Surprisingly Bhatt wasnot given his full quota of overs after having taken 2 for 13in his two overs Irfan also did not use his brother YusufBrief scores Uttar Pradesh 163 for 7 Prashanth Gupta49 Suresh Raina not out 47 Bhargav Bhatt 2 for 13 beatBaroda 125 for 7 Soaeb Tai not out 26 Ankit Rajpoot 3 for30 Amit Mishra 2 for 33 Kuldeep Yadav 2 for 16With PTI inputs