Ahmedabad
Baroda entered the semi-finals of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy tournament here on Wednesday with eight wickets for Haryana with a charismatic performance by Vishnu Solanki and Rajasthan beating Bihar by 16 runs thanks to Mahipal Lomror’s fine innings. Rajasthan will face Tamil Nadu in the first semi-final on 29 January while the second semi-final will be played between Baroda and Punjab. Punjab and Tamil Nadu defeated Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh respectively to advance to the semi-finals.

Baroda’s victory over Haryana was the middle-order batsman Vishnu Solanki. He scored an unbeaten 71, including 16 runs from the last three balls, which helped Baroda achieve the target. Haryana had scored 148 runs for seven wickets. He was in a position to defend his score. Baroda needed 23 runs in the last two overs. Captain Mohit Sharma conceded only five runs in the 19th over. In this way Baroda needed 18 runs in the last over.

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The Baroda batsmen scored three runs off the first three balls, after which they needed 15 runs off the last three balls. In such a situation, Solanki hit six and then fours on fast bowler Sumit Kumar. Baroda was now five runs away from the target and Solanki scored the winning six off the last ball to take the team score to 150 for two. Solanki hit four fours and five sixes in his innings of 46 balls.

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Captain Kedar Deodhar scored 43 off 40 balls while Smit Patel contributed 21 and Abhimanyu Singh Rajput contributed 13 not out. Haryana lost wickets at regular intervals on being invited to bat first. For him, Himanshu Rana contributed 49 and Shivam Chauhan contributed 35 runs. For Baroda, Karthik Kakde took two wickets while Atit Seth and Babashfi Pathan took one wicket each.

In the second semi-final of the day, Rajasthan batted first and scored 164 for five wickets. From his side Mahipal Lomror’s 37-ball unbeaten 78 runs with the help of five fours and same sixes, while Bharat Sharma (38) and Ankit Lamba (38) added 59 runs for the first wicket. In response, Bihar’s team was able to score 148 runs for four wickets. Mangal Mahraur scored an unbeaten 68 off 58 balls with the help of four fours and two sixes. Vikas Yadav scored an unbeaten 27 off 17 balls in the last moments but he could not reach the team goal.