Dhawan fails again, Delhi lose to Punjab in Mushtaq Ali T20 meet

India opener Shikhar Dhawan's poor run with the willow continued as Delhi went down to Punjab by two wickets in a thrilling Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament North Zone tie here on Monday.

Dhawan, who failed miserably in the three-match One-day International series (ODI) against England recently, managed just two runs from six balls before falling to Manpreet Gony in the second over.

Dhawan's opening partner Gautam Gambhir, who made a return to the India team in Tests after a two-year gap against New Zealand, too got out for just five as Delhi could never stitch together a healthy partnership and were bundled out for a meagre 103/9 with Milind Kumar top-scoring with 26.

Gony took three wickets while Sandeep Sharma picked up two.

But it was not so easy for the Harbhajan Singh-led Punjab side, who recovered from being 3/3 at one stage to ride Sharad Lumba's (36) good show with the bat to cross the line with four balls and two wickets to spare in the last over.

It was relatively smooth sailing in another match for Mumbai who beat just-crowned Ranji Trophy champions Gujarat by five wickets with 10 balls to spare.

In reply to Gujarat's 131, Shreyas Iyer's 79 off just 49 deliveries sealed the deal for Mumbai in Vadodara.

In the other West Zone game, Ankit Bawne -- who along with Swapnil Gugale put together 594 runs for Maharashtra in what is the highest stand for any wicket in a Ranji Trophy match -- scored a match-winning 71 off 52 balls to help Maharashtra beat Saurashtra by 15 runs at Vadodara.

India Test regular Cheteshwar Pujara mustered just four runs.

Down South, Hyderabad rode on opener Tanmay Agarwal's pyrotechnics (85 off 49 balls) to thrash hosts Tamil Nadu by 72 runs in Chennai. Hyderabad posted 165/5 to which the home side had no reply, falling for 93 in 19.1 overs.

Hyderabad medium pacer Chama Milind returned with figures of 4/18.

Elsewhere, Madhya Pradesh beat Rajasthan in Jaipur by 17 runs while Andhra won by six wickets against Goa in Chennai.

The Services beat Jammu and Kashmir by five runs at Nadaun while Chhattisgarh won a low scoring affair against Vidarbha by nine wickets in Jaipur.

Hosts Himachal Pradesh clinched a cliff-hanger against Haryana by five wickets here.

--IANS

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