That's it from this contest!! Hyderabad continues their dominance with three consecutive wins. The wrestling continues in the particular group with numerous teams vying for the top spots. This is Arijit Kundu, signing off alongwith co-commentators, Utsav and Deepak Prakash, while Sahil Khan was the scorer for the game. Adios!
Player of the match: Tanay Thyagarajan
7:37 PM IST and Local Time | In the battle between the two royal biryanis, it's the Hyderabadi Biryani that edges past Lucknow Biryani. Jokes apart!! Hyderabad beat Uttar Pradesh by three wickets and 17 balls remaining. They leapfrog UP with three wins in as many games and twelve points in their pocket. Hyderabad moves to the second spot in the Elite Group B.
Arriving for the chase, Tanmay Agarwal and Aman Rao offered a blistering start with the bat, gathering 34 runs at ten runs per over. However, a wicket fell in consecutive overs during the second half of the powerplay, albeit Hyderabad fetched 62 inside the restriction phase. Subsequently, Tanmay Agarwal kept the scoreboard moving rapidly, with a flurry of boundaries, before Vipraj Nigam's shrewd bowling got the better of him in the 9th over. HK Simha, Tanay Thyagarajan followed suit before Prashant Veer turned the game on its head by extracting a couple of wickets on back-to-back balls, leaving Hyderabad stranded at 107/7 in 14 overs. Despite tight bowling from UP, and not giving away easy runs, UP managed to eke out the remainder of the runs and chase the paltry target with no further hiccups.
In an attempt to continue their good form in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Hyderabad won the toss and elected to field first. Their pacers bowled tight and extracted a couple of wickets inside the 42-run powerplay. The Uttar Pradesh middle order faltered during the middle overs as Sameer Rizvi and Rinku Singh failed to sparkle. With a ball left in the twelfth over, their score read 85/5. Subsequently, a collapse followed the Hyderabadi side cleared the clutter, curbing them for 127 with four balls left.
OVER 18
Hyderabad
129/7
Nitin Sai Yadav
10(12)
Mohammad Arfaz Ahmed
13(11)
Shivam Mavi
1-29(2.1)
17.1 S Mavi to Yadav
4 Put away! It will race away to the fence. 4 runs and the low scoring thriller has gone in the hands of Hyderabad. Length ball outside off. Yadav with a backfoot punch towards point and Hyderabad has won the match by 3 wickets. Third win of the season for Hyderabad and they are now the table toppers.
3 runs needed from 3 overs. Shivam Mavi is back!
OVER 17
Hyderabad
125/7
Mohammad Arfaz Ahmed
13(11)
Nitin Sai Yadav
6(11)
Sunil Kumar
0-22(2.0)
16.6 S Kumar to Yadav
1 Single end the over. Fuller and outside off. No pace given. Yadav cuts it to deep point off his back foot and Hyderabad need just 3 runs.
Runs aren't coming easy. That's a good sign for UP. Even if they're losing, they're fighting it out.