Syed Mushtaq Ali: Baroda, Punjab in QF

Baroda beat Karnataka in Super Over

Mumbai: Yusuf Pathan smashed a 5-ball 21, with two sixes and two fours, in the Super Over off Karnataka medium pacer Abhimanyu Mithun to power Baroda into the quarter-finals of Syed Mushtaq Ali Twenty20 tournament at the Brabourne Stadium here on Friday.

Pathan's heroics enabled Baroda to rattle up 22 runs in six balls. They then restricted the opposition to a mere seven in reply in the Super-Over battle.

While Baroda won the tied game with Karnataka in a Super Over, Punjab trounced Assam by 9 wickets.

Baroda recovered brilliantly through some lusty late-order hitting by Murtuza Vahora (45 not out in 21 balls) which brought them on level terms with Karnataka's imposing score of 167 for 6.

Baroda looked down in the dumps at 103 for 7 in the 14th over following the fall of top-scorer Aditya Waghmode, who hit 50 in 32 balls with eight fours, before Vahora used the long handle to good effect to level the scores.

Karnataka paid for some sloppy bowling, particularly by Mithun who conceded 11 runs in the last over of the Baroda innings, with Vahora slamming him for a six off a short ball.

Bharat Chipli, who anchored the Karnataka innings with a 43-ball 60 with a six and 10 fours, was guilty of conceding an extra run off the last ball when Baroda needed three for a win with the last-wicket pair at the crease. With the scores level, the super over was resorted to and Mithun, who was with the Indian Test team in Australia, bowled poorly and allowed Pathan - with Ambati Rayudu as partner - to smack him for easy runs.

Baroda then used Vahora to bowl the return over and choke the Karnataka pair of skipper Robin Uthappa and Chipli.

Punjab trounce Assam by 9 wickets

Punjab demolished a hapless Assam by 9 wickets with 9 overs to spare to storm into the quarter-finals.

Punjab sent Assam in to bat and shackled them to a measly 116 for 9 before riding on an unbroken and aggressive century stand for the second wicket between Sarul Kanwar (47 not out) and Gurkeerat Singh (62 not out) to reach the target in only 11 overs.

Punjab will meet Madhya Pradesh in the quarter-finals at the Mumbai Cricket Association's BKC ground on March 25.

There was no stopping the northerners led by Harbhajan Singh as they overwhelmed their weak opponents.

There was little of note in Assam's innings barring a painstaking 48 off 52 balls studded with four boundaries by Dheeraj Jadhav and a knock of 27 in as many balls by Sibsankar Roy.

The main wicket-taker for Punjab was Mandeep Singh who grabbed 3 wickets in 5 balls in an over, including two off successive deliveries, to send back Parvez Aziz (15) and Rajdeep Das (0).

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