Veteran seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar and a fully-fit Mohsin Khan’s excellent bowling effort was complemented by Nitish Rana’s power-packed half-century as Uttar Pradesh comfortably beat Gujarat by six wickets to enter the quarter-finals of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 event in Mohali on Tuesday. Batting first, UP bowlers have been bang heading in the right direction as Gujarat managed a below-par 127 for 8 in 20 overs. UP crossed the goal with eight balls to spare and by no means regarded below stress with Rana smashing unbeaten 71 off 49 balls.

Bhuvneshwar, who has now been out of nationwide reckoning for greater than a yr, gave good exhibition of seam and swing bowling to choose up 3 for 21 in 4 overs whereas the lanky left-arm quick bowler Mohsin pegged the Gujarat batters again with tempo and bounce to finish with figures of two/13.

Kartik Tyagi, one of many quickest pacers within the Indian home circuit, additionally often breached the 140 clicks to take 1 for 27. Saurav Chauhan (32 off 21 balls) was the one notable scorer for the dropping workforce.

In reply, UP shortly misplaced a few wickets to be lowered to 22 for two at begin of the fourth over however Rana together with Sameer Rizvi (30 off 39 balls) added 81 runs in 12.1 overs to place the workforce on the cusp of victory.

Rana’s innings had seven fours and two sixes — one every off pacer Chintan Gaja and off-spinner Arya Desai.

It was Dhruv Jurel (13 not out), who ended the proceedings, hitting a 4 and a six off left-arm pacer Arzan Nagwaswalla, finest identified for being considered one of Indian Test workforce’s common internet bowlers.

Brief Scores: Gujarat: 127/8 in 20 overs (Saurav Chauhan 32 off 21 balls, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 3/21, Mohsin Khan 2/13).

UP: 130/4 in 18.4 overs (Nitish Rana 71 not out off 49 balls, Sameer Rizvi 30 off 39 balls, Ravi Bishnoi 2/29).

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