A day after their Test careers met with a dead end, veteran batters Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane on Friday soldiered on for Saurashtra and Mumbai respectively with contrasting results in the Vijay Hazare Trophy in Bengaluru.
Pujara's 35th List A fifty, an arduous 114-ball 55, could not prevent a Saurashtra collapse for a lowly 144, and Mumbai, despite captain Rahane falling for 12, reached 150 for 5 in 34.4 overs for a five-wicket win at the Alur grounds.
Both Rahane and Pujara had failed to find a place in India's Test side, which was announced on Thursday, to tour South Africa.
However, Shardul Thakur showed his all-round prowess to play a big part in Mumbai's win.
Thakur first took 2 for 37 from eight overs as defending champions Saurashtra's batting unit floundered.
Mumbai were on a shaky ground at 76 for 5, but Thakur (39 not out off 44 balls) and wicketkeeper batsman Prasad Pawar (43 not out off 63 balls) stitched together 74 runs for the unbroken sixth wicket to guide their side home.
Padikkal powers Karnataka
Devdutt Padikkal celebrated his entry into the India 'A' squad to tour South Africa, slamming a hundred to set the foundation for Karnataka's 22-run victory over Chandigarh in a Group C match in Ahmedabad.
Padikkal's 103-ball 114 and Nikin Jose's 114-ball 96 powered Karnataka to 299 for 6 with skipper Manish Pandey chipping in with an unbeaten 53 off 48 balls.
The hundred by opener Arslan Khan (102 off 103 balls) and 51 by Ankit Kaushik kept Chandigarh in the hunt for a good while, but eventually they had to settle for 277 for 7 in 50 overs.
Punjab shock star-studded TN
Fifties by Mandeep Singh (68), Prabhsimran Singh (58) helped Punjab outwit Tamil Nadu by 76 runs in their Group E match at the BKC grounds, Mumbai.
Punjab made a competitive 251 all out in 45.2 overs, and then bowled out a strong TN lineup for 175 in the 35th over. Veteran Dinesh Karthik made an 82-ball 93 for them.
However, pacer Siddharth Kaul took 5 for 50 to hinder TN's charge.
Brief scores:
Group A: Sikkim: 83 all out in 33.5 overs (Akhil Scaria 3/12, Abhijith Praveen 3/20, S Midhun 3/10) lost to Kerala: 84/3 in 13.2 overs (Krishna Prasad 38 not out) by 7 wickets.
Saurashtra: 144 all out in 40.5 overs (Cheteshwar Pujara 55 not out; Mohit Avasthi 2/32, Shams Mulani 2/16, Shardul Thakur 2/37) lost to Mumbai: 150/5 in 34.4 overs (Prasad Pawar 43 not out, Shardul Thakur 39 not out; Jaidev Unadkat 2/35) by 5 wickets.
Group B: Vidarbha: 282/6 in 42 overs (Dhruv Shorey 101, Aman Mokhade 83; Shubam Singh 2/34) beat Chattisgarh: 273/9 in 42 overs (Shashank Singh 154; Umesh Yadav 2/45, Darshan Nalkande 2/58) by 9 runs.
Group C: Karnataka: 299/6 in 50 overs (Devdutt Padikkal 114, Nikin Jose 96, Manish Pandey 53 not out; Sandeep Sharma 2/51) beat Chandigarh: 277/7 in 50 overs (Arslan Khan 102, AK Kaushik 51, Manan Vohra 34; Vasuki Koushik 2/44) by 22 runs.
Haryana: 293/6 in 50 overs (Rahul Tewatia 99 not out, SP Kumar 55 not out, Nishant Sindhu 68; Navdeep Saini 2/62) beat Delhi: 240 all out in 49.1 overs (Himmat Singh 80, Jonty Sidhu 55; Harshal Patel 3/38, Anshul Kamboj 3/22, Rahul Tewatia 3/53) by 53 runs.
Group D: Assam: 139/7 in 20 overs (Sibsankar Roy 30; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 2/35, Yash Dayal 2/18) lost to Uttar Pradesh: 145/4 in 18.2 overs (Aryan Juyal 67 not out, Sameer Rizvi 43; Akash Sengupta 2/31) by 6 wickets.
Group E: Punjab: 251 all out in 45.2 overs (Mandeep Singh 68, Prabhsimran Singh 58, Abhishek Sharma 38, Siddharth Kaul 29; Baba Aparajith 3/49, R Sai Kishore 2/43) beat Tamil Nadu: 175 all out in 34.2 overs (Dinesh Karthik 93, Siddharth Kaul 5/50, Prerit Dutta 3/32) by 76 runs.
Goa: 383/6 in 50 overs (Suyash Prabhudesai 132 not out, Snehal Kauthankar 114, Ishaan Gadekar 54; Hopongkyu 3/68) beat Nagaland: 151 all out in 39.1 overs (Jonathan Rongsen 55; Arjun Tendulkar 4/30) by 232 runs.
Baroda: 263/9 in 50 overs (Kinit Patel 72, Shashwat Rawat 44, Shivalik Sharma 42; Kumar Kartikeya 3/45) lost to Madhya Pradesh: 266/6 in 48.5 overs (Venkatesh Iyer 71 not out, Rajat Patidar 77, Yash Dubey 72; Babashafi Pathan 3/36) by 4 wickets.
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