Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy: Hyderabad lose opener against Punjab

Hyderabad began their Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament with a 59-run loss when they went down to Punjab in the opener in Jaipur

Hyderabad: Hyderabad began their Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament with a 59-run loss when they went down to Punjab in the opener in Jaipur on Tuesday.

Punjab rode on Sanvir Singh’s blitzkrieg of 19-ball 55 and Anmolpreet Singh’s 40-ball 50 to post a challenging 174/4 in 20 overs. In reply, Hyderabad were all out for 115 in 18.4 overs. All-rounder Abhishek Sharma and Baltej Singh scalped three wickets each for Punjab. For Hyderabad, N Thakur Tilak Varma was the only saving grace who scored a fighting half-century (50).

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Earlier, inviting Punjab to bat first, Hyderabad bowlers did a decent job in the early part of the innings. Punjab struggled to score runs as they managed just 31/1 in powerplay overs. Punjab were 55/2 at the half-way stage and the Hyderabad bowlers kept the opposition in check conceding 39 runs in the next five as Punjab managed 94/3.

But the momentum shifted soon after the arrival of Sanvir Singh. He came to the crease at the fall of Mandeep Singh (30 off 24) in the 15th over and took the attack to the opposition camp. He hit CTL Rakshan for 31 runs in the 17th over and reached half –century in 18 deliveries. He also added 74 runs for the fourth wicket with Anmolpreet Singh in just 29 deliveries as they scored 80 runs in the final five overs.

In pursuit of a challenging target, Hyderabad had the worst possible start losing captain Tanmay Agarwal off the very first delivery when he was stumped in the bowling of Abhishek Sharma. Two balls later, Muthyala Charan was cleaned up as Hyderabad were reduced to 2/0 in the first over. In the third over, Pragnay Reddy was run out trying for a quick single.

Experienced T Ravi Teja was also bowled by Gaurav Chaudhary while Mikhil Jaiswal was adjudged lbw off Abhishek. Hyderabad were in deep trouble losing five wickets for 36 in seven overs. At the other end, Tilak hit boundaries at regular intervals to keep the scoreboard moving. He added 36 runs for the sixth wicket with Rahul Buddhi (20 off 21) before the latter departed.

Tilak, after reaching his half-century in 34 balls with a six off Chaudhary, was bowled the very next ball to end Hyderabad’s hopes. Thanks to Tanay Thyagarajan’s 21-ball 24, Hyderabad managed to cross the 100-run mark.