Brilliant Rahane falls on 98, but steers Mumbai to Syed Mushtaq T20 final
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Ajinkya Rahane smashed a brilliant 98 to fire Mumbai into the final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 with a six-wicket win over Baroda in Bengaluru on Friday.
Rahane made 98 off 56 and fell with just one run needed to finish off what he had started. Captain Shreyas Iyer made 46 as Mumbai chased down Baroda's 158/7 with 16 balls to spare.
The stage was set for Rahane to hit a well-deserved century as he batted on 75, and Mumbai needed 26 to win. From there on, Rahane scored in sixes. He hit Abhimanyu Singh for two sixes and stole a single on the last ball to get to 88.
After seeing out a tidy over from Baroda captain Krunal Pandya, Rahane hit Abhimanyu for two more boundaries to get himself to 98 and Mumbai two runs from the win. But the pacer taunted him with a wide, and the next ball, Rahane fell while trying to hit a six.
Suryakumar Yadav, who played the perfect partner by rotating the strike, threw away his wicket in the next over, playing a casual shot before Suryansh Shedge finished with a six. Rahane tops the run-getters chart in the Mushtaq Ali Trophy with 432 runs from 7 innings.
Brief scores: Baroda 158/7 in 20 overs (Shivalik Sharma 36, Shashwat Rawat 33, Krunal Pandya 30, Suryansh Shedge 2/11) lost to Mumbai 164/4 in 17.2 overs (Ajinkya Rahane 98, Shreyas Iyer 46)