Vidarbha pacer Darshan Nalkande etched his name in history books by taking four wickets in four deliveries but his heroics was too little too late as they lost the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 semi-final to Karnataka by just four runs at Arun Jaitely Stadium in New Delhi on Saturday. Karnataka will meet Tamil Nadu in the final on Nov 22. Rookie medium pacer P Saravana Kumar starred with a fifer as defending champions TN outplayed Hyderabad by eight wickets. Chasing a stiff target of 177, Vidarbha were almost there to create a coup. Needing 14 from last six deliveries of Vidyadhar Patil, Vidarbha managed to take only 10 runs. Patil, who dropped two easy sitters, bowled well to restrict hard-hitting batter Apoorv Wankhade before taking the wicket of dangerous looking Akshay Karnewar on the first delivery of the final over. Nalkande managed to hit a boundary of the last delivery but it was too late. Vidarbha started their chase well with Taide and Ganesh Satish putting up 43 runs from five overs. But Taide’s wicket on the last ball of the fifth over put breaks on the flow of runs.

 

Captain Wadkar scored a run-a-ball 15. Shubham Dubey and Jitesh Sharma kept the asking rate in control and then Wankhade and Karnewar ran hard and picked runs to take the match to the final over. But Karnewar’s departure changed the complexion of the game and Vidarbha missed the spot in final by a whisker. Earlier, asked to bat first, Karnataka posted 176 from 20 overs with openers Rohan Kadam (87R; 56b, 7x4, 4x6) and captain Manish Pandey (54R; 42b, 2x4, 3x6) taking Vidarbha bowlers to the cleaners. The two added 132 runs for the opening wicket to lay a solid foundation for Karnataka. Abhinav Manohar was the other notable score with 13-ball 27. Nalkande, bowling the final over of the innings, started with a dot ball and then got Aniruddha Joshi caught by Yash Thakur. In the next delivery, BR Sharath edged it to wicketkeeper Wadkar. The hat-trick ball was ballooned by Jagadeesha Suchith towards Apoorv Wankhade and Abhinav Manohar became the fourth victim of Nalkande who spooned up an easy catch to Atharv Taide inside the circle. 

 

Vid beat Odisha NACHIKET Bhute took six wickets as Vidarbha recorded a narrow five-run win over Odisha in their opening match of the Men’s U-25 State A Trophy at Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium Ground C, in Rajkot on Saturday. Asked to bat first, Vidarbha posted 252 for nine in 50 overs. Aniruddha Choudhari (40), Aman Mokhade (77) and Yash Kadam (67) were the main run getters for Vidarbha. In reply, Odisha managed 247 for nine. Opener and captain Sandeep Pattanaik scored highest 71 while Aakash Ch Nayak scored 52. For Vidarbha, Bhute took six wickets while Parth Rekhade took two and Nachiket Parande one.