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Player of the Match
Player of the Match

Anuj Rawat leads Delhi's march into the semis

Anuj Rawat's 73* off 33 balls earned him the Player-of-the-match award PTI

Delhi 193 for 3 (Rawat 73*, Arya 44, Dhull 42) beat Uttar Pradesh 174 (Garg 54, Prince 3-36, Suyash 2-36) by 19 runs

Perhaps the only thing that could have stopped Anuj Rawat's assault was the end of Delhi's allotted overs. No matter which Uttar Pradesh bowler bowled at him in the death overs of the quarter-final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in Bengaluru, the ball either went to the boundary or pinged the objects that lay beyond it.

Rawat rammed an unbeaten 73 off just 33 balls despite being on 9 from 10 at one stage. Six of his seven boundaries, and all five of his sixes, came from the 15th onwards. Delhi, who had 112 at the start of the 15th, finished with 193, before their bowlers restricted UP to 174 to book their place in the semi-final.

The fun started when Rawat deposited Vineet Panwar for a four and six each, before taking Shivam Mavi for 23 runs in the 16th over. That featured a flick to fine leg and a loft over mid-off for four each, and two carbon-copy swivel-pull sixes over fine leg. Rawat brought up his half-century off 22 balls just after whipping Bhuvneshwar Kumar for six over deep square leg. He took three more boundaries off Bhuvneshwar, before ending the innings with a six off Mavi.

In reply, UP's chase hardly gained momentum. They managed only 18 in the first three overs, after which Priyam Garg decided to attack Simarjeet Singh. Garg lofted over Simarjeet's head and ramped him over deep third for six each, before ending the over by going for four over cover. But Garg's turned out to be a one-man effort, as UP slumped to 51 for 3 after seven overs.

The loudest roar from the sparse crowd, though, was reserved for when Ayush Badoni had Nitish Rana caught at long-on. The two had come head to head earlier when Rana, bowling the third ball of the 13th over of Delhi's innings, stopped short of delivering. Badoni then backed out of Rana's next attempt, only for the bowler to get in the batter's way after a single was taken when the delivery was finally bowled. The umpires had to intervene to prevent things from heating up too much.

Badoni didn't forget to give Rana a little send-off during UP's chase, which only seemed to gather pace towards the end of the tenth over. Garg swatted and lofted Prince Yadav for four and six. He got to his fifty in the 11th over, in which Sameer Rizvi cut Suyash Sharma for four behind point.

Next over, bowled by Simarjeet, Rizvi and Garg hit three boundaries off the first four legal balls. But Simarjeet got a return catch when Garg's attempted pull resulted in a top edge - he fell having contributed 54 out of UP's total of 104 at that stage. Rizvi scored a quick 26, but lacked long-term partners as Delhi's bowlers kept chipping away.

Bhuvneshwar, Mohsin Khan and Panwar provided some late entertainment by smashing five fours and two sixes between them. But the fact that UP needed their tailenders to do all this hitting to take them somewhat closer to Delhi's total told the story of their batting on the day.

UP 2nd innings Partnerships

WktRunsPlayers
1st11A JuyalKS Sharma
2nd27PK GargA Juyal
3rd7N RanaPK Garg
4th25RK SinghPK Garg
5th34PK GargSameer Rizvi
6th18Sameer RizviV Nigam
7th2Shivam MaviV Nigam
8th4B KumarShivam Mavi
9th35B KumarMohsin Khan
10th11V PanwarMohsin Khan

Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy

Group A
TeamMWLPTNRR
BENG761241.607
MP761241.536
RAJ752202.181
PNJB752201.57
HYD734121.974
BIHAR7258-1.646
MIZO7164-2.674
MEGHA7070-4.469
Group B
TeamMWLPTNRR
BRODA761242.353
SAU761242.267
GUJ761241.932
KNTKA734121.092
TN734120.869
UKHND7258-1.151
TPURA7258-1.181
SIKM7070-6.437
Group C
TeamMWLPTNRR
DELHI761242.224
UP752201.942
JHK752201.893
J + K752201.134
HRYNA734121.672
HP734120.196
MNPR7164-2.37
ARP7070-7.611
Group D
TeamMWLPTNRR
VIDAR641181.839
CHD642160.224
RLYS632140.741
ASSAM63312-2.213
CGR623100.746
PONDI6248-1.474
ODSA6146-0.106
Group E
TeamMWLPTNRR
AP651202.526
MUM651201.213
KER642160.85
MAHA63312-0.154
GOA62480.114
SVCS62480.037
NAGA6060-4.538