All-rounder’s Irfan and Hardik star in Baroda’s 53-run win over MP in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy

Baroda has been on a roll in this season of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy winning all their matches in the season thus far. It was their turn to face their strongest opponent in Group C, Madhya Pradesh this time. Once again the opposition captain won the toss and invited the Baroda to bat first. The openers gave them another fifty plus start scoring 50 in 6.1 overs and once the opening stand was broken on 64 skipper sent in all-rounder Hardik Pandya to continue the momentum.

Pandya did just what he was expected to and hit a stroke-filled knock of 48 from just 31 balls with a strike rate of 154.84. His knock also featured 4 fours and a couple of sixes. He stayed there till the 17^th over and played the role of the striker as well as anchored the innings making sure Baroda had enough runs on the board as they approached the ultimate overs. Skipper Irfan Pathan who held himself back at no. 6 stayed there till the end playing another fiery knock of 27 off just 12 balls hitting two sixes and two fours. His cameo got Baroda to 181 in their innings.

When Madhya Pradesh came out to bat, it was another clinical performance by the Baroda bowlers who did not let any of the top order MP batsmen get going. Pathan like he did in the previous game, bowled the first over of the innings and got the first wicket as vice-captain Deepak Hooda grabbed the catch of opener Zafar Ali. He came back in his second to give MP the second blow getting rid of Ankit Sharma.

Apart from Harpreet Singh who struck a fighting half-century scoring 52 off 37, no other batsman even managed to cross 20 as Irfan & Co. kept picking regular wickets. Irfan finished with figures of 3.4-0-44-4 while RT Arote got 2, Soaeb Tai grabbed 3 and Munaf Patel picked a solitary wicket in his spell.

In the end, 182 proved a bit too much for the visitors and they failed miserably in their chase getting all out for 128 and losing the match by a huge margin of 53 runs. With this win, Baroda are now certain of making it to the knockouts as they have 16 points in 4 matches.

Brief Scores:

Baroda– 181/5 (H Pandya 48, I Pathan 27*; A Sharma 2/34)

Madhya Pradesh– 128/10 (H Singh 52; I Pathan 4/34, RT Arote 2/12)