Vijay Hazare Trophy: Delhi ease past Haryana

Delhi comfortably beat Haryana by 66 runs to register their second win in the North Zone leg of the Vijay Hazare National One Day Championship and in the process put one foot in the knock-out rounds in Bilaspur.

Being put into bat at the Lohnu Cricket Ground, Delhi made a fighting 235 for six in 38 overs in a curtailed game.

In reply, Haryana were never in the contest as new ball duo of Parvinder Awana (4/33) and left-arm seamer Pradeep Sangwan (3/30) wreaked havoc to dismiss them for 169 in 35 overs. Having won the game with bonus points, Delhi now have 13 points from four games with two of their matches didn't yield any results.

Earlier, Delhi's total was beefed up by half centuries from youngsters Dhruv Shorey and Jagrit Anand, both of whom made 57 each while Sumit Narwal played a nice cameo blasting 46 off 24 balls with five fours and two sixes.

Shorey hit six fours in his 58 ball knock while Anand faced 61 balls to hit five fours and a six.

Unmukt Chand's horrible run in the tournament continued as he managed only 25.

Haryana skipper Amit Mishra promoted himself to open the innings and scored 55 off 70 balls with five fours but couldn't provide the necessary impetus as Awana and Sangwan rocked the top-order. Haryana openers in longer format, Nitin Saini (33) and Rahul Dewan (25) got starts but couldn't convert into big scores.

Brief Scores:
Delhi 235/6 in 38 overs (Dhruv Shorey 57, Jagrit Anand 57, Harshal Patel 2/59).
Haryana 169 all out in 35 overs (Amit Mishra 55, Parvinder Awana 4/33, Pradeep Sangwan 3/30).

Punjab enter quarters after beating SSCB
Dharamsala: Punjab entered the Vijay Hazare National One-Day Championship quarter-finals after a facile five-wicket win over the Services Sports Control Board in their North Zone leg encounter.

Electing to bowl after winning the toss, Punjab bowled out SSCB for 183 in 44.3 overs before making 186/5 in 45.4 overs to ease into the last-eight stage.

Punjab are at the top of the zonal table with 16 points after three wins in four matches. Services found themselves cornered from the very start with four of their top-five batsmen failing to hit double-digit scores.

Number six Rajat Paliwal stood tall amid the ruins with 118-ball 96, which was studded with 13 fours.

But he did not get any support at the other end. For Punjab, Sandeep Sharma was the top wicket-taker with figures of 3/28 in eight overs.

In reply, Punjab sailed past the target with their top-half making decent contributions. Gurkeerat Singh (49) and Mayank Sidhana (43 not out) top-scored for Punjab.

Brief Scores:
Services: 183 all out in 44.3 overs (Rajat Paliwal 96, Sandeep Sharma 3/38)
Punjab: 186/5 in 45.4 overs (Gurkeerat Singh 49, Gurkeerat Singh 49 not out).

HP register easy win against J&K
Nadaun: Himachal Pradesh produced a fine allround performance to hand over Jammu and Kashmir a 73-run defeat in a North Zone leg match of the Vijay Hazare Trophy One-Day Championship.

Sent into bat, HP posted a challenging 248 for nine in their stipulated 50 overs with opener Aakash Chopra cracking a superb 72 off 103 balls, including three boundaries.

The HP bowlers then returned to decimate J&K, dismissing them for a paltry 175 in 42 overs.

Rahul Singh became the pick of the bowlers with figures of four for 37, while P Dhruv Singh (2/14) and Karan Veer (2/19) took two each to complete the victory for HP.

Replying to HP's competitive total, J&K got off to a good start as they crossed 50-run mark by losing just one wicket.

But the departures of opener Ahmed Omer (25) and I R Singh (24) triggered a collapse and suddenly from 55 for one, they were reeling at 74 for seven.

Having lost six wickets for just 19 runs, J&K could never recover, even as Waseem Paray and Ramdyal Punia (35) consolidated the innings for a while. Paray and Punia put on a 60-run stand for the eighth wicket.

But once Punia got out, HP bowlers quickly winded up the tail, leaving Paray stranded at an unbeaten 52 off 78 balls, laced with three fours.

Earlier, Aakash and Prashant Chopra (25) gave HP a fine start, followed by the top and middle order chipping in with some valuable runs to take the team past 245-mark.

For J&K, Zahoor Sofi took four for 62, while Ramdyal claimed three for 41.