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Samson, Asif star in Kerala's win over Mumbai; Baroda crush Gujarat

Sanju Samson gave Kerala a smashing start in the chase Tanuj Pandey/UPCA

Sanju Samson, Sharafuddeen and KM Asif were the stars as Kerala handed Mumbai their first loss of the season, beating them by 15 runs in Lucknow.

Samson, who is back to opening the innings this season, laid the platform with 46 off 28 balls. Vishnu Vinod struggled in the middle and managed only 43 not out off 40 balls, but Sharafuddeen's unbeaten 35 off 15 took the side to 178 for 5.

Sharafuddeen then removed Ayush Mhatre in the first over of the chase but Ajinkya Rahane (32 off 18) and Sarfaraz Khan (52 off 40) kept Mumbai going. By the time Sarfaraz got out, Mumbai needed 80 from eight overs. Suryakumar Yadav brought it down to 31 required from three. But Asif's three wickets - including Suryakumar's for 32 off 25 - in the 18th over derailed Mumbai. They needed 18 from the final over with two wickets in hand. Asif took only four balls to wrap up the innings and complete his five-for.

Limbani, Sheth star as Baroda crush Gujarat

Fast bowler Raj Limbani picked up 3 for 5 in 2.1 overs and allrounder Atit Sheth 2 for 14 in three as Baroda crushed Gujarat by eight wickets in Hyderabad. Hardik Pandya also had a decent outing a day after being named in India's T20I squad to face South Africa, picking up 1 for 16 in four overs, which included a maiden, and scoring 10 off six from No. 3 in the small chase.

The match, originally scheduled to take place at the Gymkhana Ground, was relocated to the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium. "Fan turnout, enquiries, and crowd movement exceeded our projections by a huge margin, "a senior organising official told PTI. "To ensure safety and smooth match operations, we decided to shift the match to the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium."

Sent in, Urvil Patel and Aarya Desai added 29 runs for the opening wicket, but it all went downhill thereafter for Gujarat. Hardik removed Urvil for 7 with Desai falling the very next ball to Limbani. Dhrushant Soni was run out, Rasikh Salam removed Saurav Chauhan, and Krunal Pandya too picked up a wicket. Sheth then picked up two lower-order wickets before Limbani had Hemang Patel caught and bowled as Gujarat were bowled out in 14.1 overs.

Shashwat Rawat and Vishnu Solanki were quick in the chase, adding 55 runs in just five overs. Hardik struck two fours in his innings, while Rawat remained unbeaten on 30 off 19 to seal Baroda's chase in 6.4 overs. Legspinner Ravi Bishnoi was the only Gujarat bowler to get into the wickets column, returning 2 for 26 in 1.4 overs.

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