SMAT: Haryana beat Bengal to enter Super 8s, Punjab also qualify

Hyderabad, Dec 8 (PTI) Mohammed Shami's impressive figures of 4 for 30 went in vain as Haryana comfortably beat Bengal by 24 runs in a group C game to enter the Super 8s of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament here on Monday.

Haryana (+0.409) finished the group league engagements with 20 points and qualified as the second team from the group behind Punjab (+2.716), who logged the same number of points but had a better net run rate.

Shami finished the tournament with 16 wickets and on the day, was once again instrumental in polishing off the Haryana tail, restricting them to 191 for 9. This was after Haryana were 170 for 4 in 17 overs.

In this edition of SMAT, Shami has been very effective at death barring the Punjab game when Abhishek Sharma took him to cleaners.

In reply, Bengal managed only 167 in 20 overs and that too after requiring 69 runs from eight overs with six wickets in hand.

The match changed once Yuvraj Keswani (25 off 14 balls), who looked in good touch having hit two sixes, was dismissed. Anshul Kamboj, Ishant Bhardwaj and Sumit Kumar got two wickets apiece while Abhishek Porel (47 off 24 balls) didn't convert a dazzling start.

Punjab tops group to enter Super 8s ======================== Mumbai Indians star Naman Dhir smashed 61 off 36 balls as Punjab cruised to a 75-run victory over Gujarat to qualify for the Super 8s.

Playing without Abhishek Sharma, Punjab posted 188 for 8 in 20 overs and then a collective bowling performance saw Gujarat decimated for 113 in 16.1 overs. Punjab with 20 points topped group C, followed by Haryana.

Debutant Amit Pasi hits 55-ball-114 in Baroda win ================================ Debutant opener Amit Pasi hit 10 boundaries and as many as nine sixes in his 55-ball-114 as Baroda beat Services by 13 runs in a high scoring game.

Pasi, the 26-year-old, who made a name in Baroda Premier League, guided Baroda to 220 for 5 and then winners restricted Services to 207 for 8.

With the effort, Pasi equalled Bilal Asif's record for the highest score on T20 debut.

However neither Baroda (16 points) nor Services qualified for the next stage.

Brief Scores Haryana 191 for 9 in 20 overs (Nishant Sindhu 48, Mohammed Shami 4/30).

Bengal 167 in 20 overs (Abhishek Porel 47, Ishant Bharadwaj 2/18, Sumit Kumar 2/25, Anshul Kamboj 2/42). Haryana won by 24 runs Punjab 188 for 8 in 20 overs (Naman Dhir 61, Harpreet Brar 24 not out, Arzan Nagwaswalla 2/21). Gujarat 113 in 16.1 overs (Ashwani Kumar 2/7, Sanvir Singh 2/7).

Punjab won by 75 runs.

Baroda 220/5 in 20 overs (Amit Passi 114).

Services 207/8 in 20 overs (Kumwar Pathak 51, Raj Limbani 3/37). Baroda won by 13 runs. PTI KHS KHS APA APA