Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2018: UP Defeat Vidarbha But Suresh Raina Disappoints

Suresh Raina continued his dry run in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy as he just scored two runs in Uttar Pradesh’s second last tie of the league. Though, UP defeated Vidarbha by six runs and kept its hopes of qualifying for the next round alive.

Batting first, UP posted a total of 137/8 on the board. Sarul Kunwar and Shivam Chaudhary provided a decent start to the team and shared 39 runs. They lost another wicket soon as Raina was dismissed on two off 7.

Rinku Singh too followed Raina and UP seemed to be in trouble. Akshadeep Nath came to UP’s rescue and shared 61 runs for the fourth wicket to steer the score ahead.

UP continued to receive dents on their way to 137.

Vidarbha had a disappointing start as they lost an early wicket one just six. Wickets continued to fall at regular intervals which kept Vidarbha out of the contest.

Amit Mishra was the star with the ball as he scalped four wickets in just three overs for 10 runs. Kuldeep Yadav too bowled a spell of 4-0-24-1.

UP still have it’s chances of qualifying for the next round alive, and if they post a big win in their last league stage game, then they can qualify for the second round of the tournament.

Suresh Raina will have to play a crucial role in last game if the team needs to qualify for the next round. He has just managed 42 runs in four innings till now.

His string of low scores are not just having an impact on team’s performing but are also pushing him down in the race to team India’s comeback. A good domestic series can see him making a comeback in the national side as he has already cleared the yo-yo test.

Brief scores: Uttar Pradesh 137/8 (Shivam Chaudhary 51, Akshadeep Nath 31; Ravikumar Thakur 3-29) defeat Vidarbha 131/8 (Apoorv Wankhade 33, Faiz Fazal 32; Amit Mishra 4-10) by six runs. 

Brief scores: Madhya Pradesh 135/7 defeat Railways 111/6 by 24 runs.

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