Vidarbha pacer Yash Thakur halted Andhra in its tracks by grabbing four wickets to guide his side to a 19-run victory in a Group A final-round match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy here on Monday. Andhra, who have already qualified for the next stage along with Mumbai from the group, failed to overhaul Vidarbha’s 154/8, with the 26-year-old right-hand bowler returning excellent figures of 4/22 to restrict the opponents to 135/9.
Thakur, who also had a five-wicket haul in an earlier match, ended his SMAT campaign with 18 scalps. Vidarbha’s innings revolved around Aman Mokhade’s 50 and keeper-batter Akshay Wadkar, who scored a 33-ball 41 with Andhra pacer Satyanarayana Raju’s 4/26 playing a big role in restricting the opponents to a below-average score.
However, Andhra fared even worse when they came out to bat, losing three wickets for 31 runs including India player Srikar Bharat for a golden duck. Pyla Avinash scored a 37-ball 44 but that was not enough as seven players could only manage single-digit scores. In another match, young Assam pacer Sadek Hussain returned a four-wicket haul on way to defeating Kerala by five wickets.
Brief scores:
Vidarbha 154/8 in 20 overs (Aman Mokhade 50, Akshay Wadkar 41; Satyanarayana Raju 4/26) beat Andhra 135/9 in 20 overs (Pyla Avinash 44; Yash Thakur 4/22) by 19 runs.
Kerala 101 in 19.4 overs (Sadek Hussain 4/19, Abdul Ajij Kuraishi 2/16, Avinov Choudhury 2/15) lost to Assam 105/5 in 18.5 overs (Pradyun Saikia 41 not out; KM Asif 2/22) by 5 wickets.
