Acing the chase: Porel starred with a 24-ball 50 in Bengal’s six-wicket win over Baroda.
| Photo Credit: K.V.S. GIRI
The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy’s Hyderabad leg got off to an electrifying start thanks to a blinder of an innings from Gujarat skipper Urvil Patel. The Chennai Super Kings player, who has made a habit of racking up centuries on the domestic scene, made mincemeat of Services’ bowling attack at the Gymkhana Ground on Wednesday.
His 174-run stand with Aarya Desai laid the foundation for Gujarat’s facile eight-wicket win, which was secured in 12.3 overs. Urvil finished unbeaten on 119 (37 balls, 12×4, 10×6).
Urvil scored a 31-ball century.
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Later, Pondicherry and Haryana played out a nailbiter at the same venue. Akash Pugazhendi’s 23-ball 60 helped the southern side set a 202-run target. Arsh Ranga and Yashvardhan Dalal’s 110-run second-wicket stand looked to have Haryana on course to victory before the team folded like a pack of cards. After they fell, Aman Khan cleaned up the middle-order and gave Pondicherry a six-run win.
Meanwhile, at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, it was ‘homecoming’ for two Team India stars in Abhishek Sharma and Mohammed Shami. Abhishek failed to make an impact even as Punjab beat Himachal Pradesh by five wickets.
Shami, who struggled to make an impact in Sunrisers Hyderabad colours in IPL 2025, could not shine in his comeback to the City of Pearls (4-0-39-1) even though Bengal went on to beat Baroda by six wickets.
Pacer Writtick Chatterjee bouncing back after conceding 23 runs in his first over proved crucial for Bengal. He changed to the pavilion end and, under the lights, gave away just 15 runs in his next three overs and scalped two wickets.
Bengal barely allowed partnerships to build and was in control of the proceedings before Bhanu Pania’s unbeaten 53 (27 balls, 3×4, 4×6) helped Baroda set a competitive 182-run target.
Abishek Porel and Karal Lal’s 82-run stand took the sting out of Baroda’s attack early in the chase. The former made merry on the off side (with three sixes), and the latter lit up the wagon wheel on the leg side (1×4, 4×6).
Shahbaz Ahmed and Sudip Kumar Gharmi (66-run stand from 39 balls) then wrapped up the match in the 18th over, much to the delight of a handful of fans who trickled in midway through the contest.
The scores: Services 182/9 in 20 overs (Gaurav Kochar 60) lost to Gujarat 183/2 in 12.3 overs (Aarya Desai 60, Urvil Patel 119 n.o.).
Himachal Pradesh 147/8 in 20 overs (Innesh Mahajan 33, Nikhil Gangta 35 n.o.) lost to Punjab 153/5 in 13.5 overs (Anmolpreet Singh 43, Salil Arora 36).
Pondicherry 201/9 in 20 overs (Ajay Rohera 33, Akash Pugazhanthi 60, Aman Kham 35, Samant Jakhar 3/24) bt Haryana 196/6 in 20 overs (Arsh Ranga 90, Yashvardhan Dalal 52, Nishant Sindhu 33, Aman Khan 4/28).
Baroda 181/8 in 20 overs (Shivalik Sharma 32, Krunal Pandya 39, Bhani Pania 53 n.o.) lost to Bengal 182/4 in 17.1 overs (Abishek Porel 50, Karan Lal 42, Shahbaz Ahmed 38 n.o.).
Published – November 26, 2025 08:31 pm IST
