Kerala's first win in two games in Super League Group A, after the loss to hosts Mumbai in the opener on Friday, has kept their hopes of topping the group alive.
Raiphi Gomez smashed an unbeaten 47 off 21 balls with three sixes and as many fours to guide Kerala to a shock four-wicket victory over two-time former champions Baroda in the Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament at Mumbai on Saturday.
Gomez's whirlwind, unbroken partnership of 45 off just 17 balls for the seventh wicket with Prashanth Padmanabhan, who remained not out on 17 after hitting two successive sixes off Munaf Patel in the 19th over, enabled Kerala to chase down Baroda's total of 160 for 6, with two balls to spare, at the Wankhede Stadium.
Kerala's first win in two games in Super League Group A, after the loss to hosts Mumbai in the opener on Friday, has kept their hopes of topping the group alive while Baroda suffered their first defeat in two games after their victory over Vidarbha on Friday.
Kerala were struggling at 15 for 3 after a twin strike by rival skipper Irfan Pathan who packed off their leading scorers in the preliminary league, hard-hitting opener Sanju Samson and one-down Rohan Prem, within the first five overs.
With Munaf accounting for V A Jagadeesh in the second over, Kerala were in deep trouble before they recovered to 106 for 4 by the 15th over, thanks to Nihlil Surendran (36 in 32 balls) and captain Sachin Baby's quickfire 44 in 35 balls, with two sixes and four fours.
But Baroda seemed to have things well under control with Kerala needing to score 55 off 30 balls when Gomez upped the tempo by hitting the wayward Rishi Arothe for a six and a four in the 18th over to bring down the asking rate.
When 27 were needed in the last 12 balls, left-handed Prashanth despatched Munaf over the leg-side field for two sixes and then Gomez once again lashed out at Arothe to score two twos, a four and then finished off the game with a six.
Earlier, Baroda built their innings on opener Kedar Devdhar's slow 31, Deepak Hooda's 32 in 16 balls and Irfan 35 not out in 18 balls to put up a challenging score. Prashanth impressed with a haul of 2 for 15.
Brief scores: Baroda 160 for 6 (K Devdhar 31, D Hooda 32, I Pathan 35 not out; P Prashanth 2 for 15) lost to Kerala 164 for 6 (N Surendran 36, S Baby 44, R Gomez 47 not out; I Pathan 2 for 14).
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