Patna: Hard work of Bipin Saurabh (52 runs), Babul Kumar (72 runs) and Abhijit Saket (3 wickets) went in vain as Bihar suffered another defeat in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20, despite scoring 181 runs off 20 overs. Andhra Pradesh beat Bihar by two wickets with two balls to spare at Holkar Stadium in Indore on Tuesday.
Batting first, Bihar scored 181 runs for two wickets in the allotted 20 overs. In reply, Andhra Pradesh scored 186 for 8 in 19.4 overs and won the match by two wickets. Karan Shinde played an important role in Andhra Pradesh’s victory as he played a brilliant innings of 75 runs off 38 balls with the help of 9 fours and 4 sixes.
Bihar won the toss and decided to bat first. Bihar made three changes in the Bihar playing XI. Babul Kumar, Saqib Hasan and Anunay Narayan Singh were included in the main team from the list of standby.
Peter Maradi got a chance in the playing XI for the first time while Bipin Saurabh returned to the team. Anunay Narayan Singh played in the second innings as an impact player, replacing Babul Kumar.
Raghavendra Pratap, who had performed well in the last match, was excluded from the squad due to the reasons best known to team management.
Bihar team got off to a bright start as Openers Bipin Saurabh and Babul Kumar batted very well. Both of them scored half centuries. Together, they added 118 runs in 83 balls. Apart from these two, the vice-captain Sakibul Gani and Sachin Kumar Singh also played well and scored runs quickly. Bihar scored 181 runs in the stipulated 20 overs.
Bipin Saurabh scored 52 runs off 39 balls with 4 fours and 3 sixes. Babul Kumar made 72 off 50 balls with 10 fours and one six. Sakibul Gani scored 33 not out off 17 balls with two fours and 2 sixes, Sachin Kumar Singh scored an unbeaten 19 runs in 14 balls with the help of 3 fours.
For Andhra Pradesh, KV Shashikanth took two wickets for 36 runs.
Chasing the target of 182 runs, Andhra Pradesh started poorly. Abhijit Saket gave the early blows to Andhra team. He took the wickets of Abhishek Reddy then Ashwin Heber and then KS Bharat. Andhra lost two wickets for 41 runs. After this Anuj Raj and Harsh Vikram took one wicket each and sent half the Andhra team to the pavilion for 68. But later, Karan Shinde’s played a superb knock of 75 helped his team snatch victory from the jaws of the defeat.
For Andhra Pradesh Abhishek Reddy (1) Ashwin Heber (25), KS Bharat (5), GH Vihari (9), Rikki Bhuine (37), SK Rashid (15), Karan Shinde (75), Girinath Reddy (4), KV Shashikanth (6 not out) and Ayyappa Bandaru (1 not out) were the run getters. For Bihar, Abhijit Saket took 3 wickets for 31 runs, Harsh Vikram Singh took 2 wickets for 43 runs. Bihar tried a total of 8 bowlers.
