A brilliant 74 by Ajinkya Rahane and his 105-run second-wicket partnership with Ramesh Powar (61) helped Mumbai beat last year's runners-up Uttar Pradesh by one wicket and enter the Ranji Trophy Limited-overs Inter-State tournament final at the Sawai Mansingh stadium in Jaipur on Sunday.
Chasing a victory target of 225, Mumbai achieved it in the penultimate over. Avishkar Salvi, who hit the winning runs off R P Singh, returned unbeaten on eight along with Usman Malvi (5).
Uttar Pradesh off-spinner Piyush Chawla (31 for 4) bowled extremely well to have Mumbai always struggling in the match.
Mumbai suffered an early jolt as Wasim Jaffer was out for a duck. But Rahane and Powar took the control on the situation.
Rahane scored 74 off 100 deliveries, inclusive of eight fours and a six, while Powar scored 61 off 68 balls, inclusive of 11 fours.
Rajasthan take Punjab in the second semi-final on Monday.
Scorecard
Uttar Pradesh
Praveen Kumar c Mazumdar b Malvi 31
A Kapoor lbw b A Nayer 47
T Srivastava c Mazumdar b Salvi 2
M Kaif lbw b N Kulkarni 64
R Shukla c V Mane b N Kulkarni 14
P Chawla not out 25
R P Singh c A Nayer b N Kulkarni 6
P Singh not out 26.
Extras: (lb 1, w 8) 9
Total: (for 6 wickets in 50 overs) 224
Fall of wickets: 1-38, 2-43, 3-112, 4-159, 5-168, 6-175.
Bowling: A Salvi 9-0-51-1, Usman Malvi 9-0-34-1, A Nayer-8-0-37-1, N Kulkarni 10-0-41-3, Ramesh Power -10-0-38-0, R Sharma 4-0-22-0.
Mumbai
W Jaffer lbw b P Kumar 0
A Rahane b Chawla 74
R Powar c Kaif b Powar 61
A Mazumdar lbw b Chawla 19
V Mane run out (R P Singh) 12
Rohit Sharma c R P Singh b P Kumar 18
Abhishek lbw b Chawla 1
V Samant lbw b S Srivastava 7
N Kulkarni b S Srivastava 2
U Malvi not out 5
A Salvi not out 8
Extras: 21
Total: (for 9 in 49 over) 228
Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-10, 3-15, 4-177, 5-180, 6-181, 7-198, 8-207, 9-217.
Bowling: P Kumar 9-0-40-0, S Srivastava 10-0-63-2, A Yadav 10-0-47-0, P Chawla 10-2-31-4.
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