Himachal Pradesh rode on Pankaj Jaiswal's impressive 4/12 to register a close eight-run win over Madhya Pradesh in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Twenty20 cricket tournament here today.
The result, though, was inconsequential as both teams are now not in contention for a place in the final.
Thanks to Jaiswal and Shresth Nirmohi, who picked up three wickets, HP could defend a total of 145 after being asked to bat.
Jaiswal removed Jajaj Saxena and Zafar Ali for ducks, before Mohnish Mishra and Udit Birla departed in successive overs. However, Parth Sahani (47) combined well with Harpreet Singh (40) to bail them out with a rapid 79-run partnership.
But MP suffered another collapse, losing their last five wickets for only 27 runs, with Jaiswal accounting for Sahani and No. 10 Puneet Datey in the final over.
Earlier, HP lost Abhimanyu Rana to Yogesh Rawat in the second over, but Raghav Dhawan and Prashant Chopra got together, adding 75 runs to steady the innings.
Paras Dogra (19 off 13 balls) and Bipul Sharma (15 off 5 balls) hit quick runs to steer their side to 145.
