Vijay Hazare: Gaikwad, Bharat continue hot streak

Ruturaj Gaikwad continued to be in red hot form to smash his fourth hundred on Tuesday but Maharashtra, despite their narrow win over Chandigarh, couldn't qualify for the Vijay Hazare knock-out stages. Captain Srikar Bharat's second successive hundred powered Andhra to an 81-run win over Gujarat in their Elite Group A match in Mumbai.

Here's a summary of results of the Vijay Hazare Trophy matches played on Tuesday.

Big hundreds for Bharat, Faiz

Mumbai:  Riding on Bharat's blazing 156 off 138 balls, barely two days after his 161-run knock against Himachal Pradesh, a struggling Andhra managed to post 253 for nine after batting first.

Bharat smashed seven sixes and 16 fours during his knock. In reply, Gujarat were all out for 172 in 41.3 overs with left-arm spinner Manish Golamaru picking 4/30.

In another Group A match, skipper Faiz Fazal struck an unbeaten hundred as Vidarbha comfortably beat Jammu and Kashmir by five wickets.              

Chasing 234 to win after opting to bowl first, Vidarbha rode on their experienced skipper's 102 off 110 balls to complete the task with as many seven overs to spare at the Bandra Kurla Complex.

Brief Scores

Jammu and Kashmir: 233 all out in 49.3 overs (Parvez Rasool 50, Fazil Rashid 73; Yash Tahkur 3/58, Aditya Sarwate 3/36) lost to Vidarbha 236/5 in 43 overs (Faiz Fazal 102 not out, Apoorv Wankhade 79) by 5 wickets.              

Himachal Pradesh 360/5 in 50 overs (Nikhil Gangta 81, Rishi Dhawan 91) beat Odisha 297 all out in 45.1 overs (Subhranshu Senapati 82; Mayank Dagar 6/59) by 63 runs.        

Andhra: 253/9 in 50 overs (Srikar Bharat 156) beat Gujarat 172 all out in 41.3 overs (Umang Kumar 55; Manish Golamaru 4/30) by 81 runs.

Maharashtra knocked out, MP clinch thriller

Rajkot: Gaikwad’s hundred was not enough for Maharashtra, who were unlucky to be eliminated finishing third on net-run rate (+0.104) after they ended with 16 points with Kerala (+0.974) and Madhya Pradesh (+0.485).

Chasing a tall 310 in a do-or-die group D clash, the Maharashtra skipper led from the front with a blistering 168 from 132 balls.  This was the Maharashtra and Chennai Super Kings opener's fourth century in five matches -- his sensational form continuing since his record-breaking IPL 2021 run, where he amassed 635 runs to bag the Orange Cap.  

Gaikwad earlier had scored a hattrick of centuries -- 136, 154*, 124 -- in the ongoing VHT to conclude the season with 603 runs with an average of 150.75.

Kerala topped group D with a massive five-wicket win over Uttarakhand with 86 balls to spare to advance directly into the quarters where they will face Services at Jaipur on December 22.

Madhya Pradesh on the other hand finished second, ousting Maharashtra with a thrilling three-run win over Chhattisgarh to qualify for the pre-quarters where they will face Uttar Pradesh at Jaipur on December 19.

He also joined the likes of Virat Kohli, Prithvi Shaw, Devdutt Padikkal to hit four centuries in the same Vijay Hazare Trophy edition.

Brief Scores

Chandigarh 309/7; 50 overs (Manan Vohra 141, Arslan Khan 87, Ankit Kaushik 56; Pradeep Dadhe 4/49, Mukesh Choudhary 2/79) lost to Maharashtra 313/5; 48.5 overs (Ruturaj Gaikwad 168, Azim Kazi 73 not out; Yuvraj Choudhary 2/62) by five wickets.

Uttarakhand 224/9; 50 overs (Jay Bista 93, Dikshanshu Negi 52; M D Nidheesh 3/25, Basil Thampi 2/41) lost to Kerala 225/5; 35.4 overs (Sachin Baby 83 not out; Deepesh Nainwal 2/40) by five wickets.

Madhya Pradesh 191; 45.5 overs (Shubham Sharma 56, Rajat Patidar 47; Ravi Kiran 3/36, Sumit Ruikar 3/41, Ajay Mandal 2/25) beat Chhattisgarh 188; 49.3 overs (Sanjeet Desai 47, Ajay Mandal 42; Parth Sahani 2/21, Kumar Kartikeya 2/29, Shubham Sharma 2/35, Avesh Khan 2/46) by three runs.

Mumbai knocked out, TN progress

Thiruvananthapuram: Tamil Nadu suffered batting debacle in their 41-run defeat at the hands of Baroda in their final group B match but that didn't stop them from qualifying for the knock-out stage of the competition.

Defending champions Mumbai stumbled to a fourth defeat in five games to finish with four points after a humiliating 18-run loss to unfancied Pondicherry.

Though Tamil Nadu (12 points) was well beaten by Baroda, its healthy net run-rate of 1.052 helped the team take the top spot ahead of Karnataka (12 points, NRR 0.789) and Bengal (12 points, NRR 0.235) and Puducherry (12 points, NRR -1.360) after four teams finished equal of points.            

Meanwhile, Karnataka went down to Bengal despite making 252 for 8 in 50 overs thanks to Manish Pandey's enterprising knock of 90. Skipper Sudip Chatterjee (63) and opener Abhisek Das (58) fashioned Bengal's victory with Shahbaz Ahmed (26 not out) finishing off the job.

Brief scores

Karnataka 252 for 8 in 50 overs (Manish Pandey 90, 85 balls, Rohan Kadam 37, Karun Nair 25, Pradipta Pramanik 4/48) lost to Bengal 253 for 6 in 48.3 overs (Sudip Chatterjee 63, Abhisek Das 58, Ritwik Roy Chowdhury 49, Shahbaz Ahmed 26 not out) by four wickets. Bengal: 4 points, Karnataka: 0.    

Baroda 114 all out in 39 overs (Krunal Pandya 38, R Sanjay Yadav 2/13) beat Tamil Nadu 73 all out in 20.2 overs (Bhargav Bhatt 3/27, Gurjindersingh Mann 2/7) by 41 runs. Baroda: 4 points, TN: 0.

Pondicherry 157 all out in 46 overs (Paras Dogra 58 (84 balls, 6x4, 1x6), Mohit Avasthi 3/19) beat Mumbai 139 all out in 48.1 overs (Aakarshith Gomel 70 (127 balls, 5X4), Fabid Ahmed 4/16) by 18 runs. Pondicherry: 4 points, Mumbai: 0.

Punjab-Goa thriller ends in tie, Services through

Ranchi: All-rounder Lakhan Singh impressed with both bat and ball to help Services defeat Rajasthan by 16 runs and set up a quarter-final clash with Kerala.          

In a top-of-the table concluding group E clash, Services scored 232/7 after Rajasthan elected to field at the Jharkhand State Cricket Association Oval ground.

In reply, Rajasthan were restricted to 216/9 with left arm spinner Rahul Singh doing the maximum damage with his 3/33 from his 10 overs that included two maidens.       

Brief Scores

Assam 267/8; 50 overs (Rishav Das 71, Riyan Parag 66; Akash Pandey 2/36, Amit Kuila 2/69) beat Railways 205; 48.1 overs (Mohammad Saif 52, Vivek Singh 41; Pritam Das 3/38, Mukhtar Hussain 2/22, Parag 2/35, Swarupam Purkayastha 2/42) by 62 runs.

Services 232/7; 50 overs (Ravi Chauhan 61, Lakhan Singh 42; Aniket Choudhary 3/20, Shubham Sharma 3/44) beat Rajasthan 216/9; 50 overs (Abhijeet Tomar 58, Shubham Sharma 47; Rahul Singh 3/33, Diwesh Pathania 2/36, Lakhan Singh 2/54) by 16 runs.

Punjab 288/8; 50 overs (Gurkeerat Mann 105, Anmolpreet Singh 101; Lakshay Garg) tied with Goa 288/7; 50 overs (Snehal Kauthankar 148 not out, Samar Dubhashi 56).

Tripura, Meghalaya progress to knockouts

Jaipur: Tripura beat Meghalaya by nine wickets in their final Vijay Hazare Trophy Plate group match to finish with an unbeaten record and qualify for the knockout phase. 

With both Tripura and Meghalaya locked on four wins from four games, the fifth match was a direct shootout for a spot in the next round and the former eased home after bundling out its opponent for 116 in 39.5 overs.

Chasing 117 for a win, opener Bishal Ghosh and Samit Gohel slammed half-centuries to knock off the required runs in 28 overs and secured Tripura's progress in the national 50-over tournament.

Tripura finished with 20 points from five matches to top the Plate group and advanced while Meghalaya was second (16 points, 4 wins,1 loss) and Bihar third (12 points, three wins, 2 losses). Nagaland also had three wins and 12 points but was fourth due to an inferior net run-rate.

Brief scores

Meghalaya 116 all out in 39.5 overs (Chirag Khurana 55, Amit Ali 5/26) lost to Tripura 118 for 1 in 28 overs (Samit Gohel 55 not out, Bishal Ghosh 51 not out) by nine wickets. Tripura: 4 points, Meghalaya: 0.    

Arunachal Pradesh 83 all out in 21.3 overs (Rajesh Bishnoi 25, Malay Raj 5/38, Sachin Kumar 3/6) lost to Bihar 87 for 4 in 19.1 overs (Pratyush Singh 28 not out) by six wickets. Bihar: 4 points, Arunachal: 0.    

Sikkim 230 for 9 in 50 overs (Codanda Ajit Karthik 45, Kranthi Kumar 29, Homendro Kabrambam 3/34) lost to Manipur 234 for 8 in 50 overs (Jayanta 50, M Langlonyamba 52, Nitesh 45, Karthik 3/42) by two wickets. Manipur: 4 points, Sikkim: 0.    

Nagaland 236 for 8 in 50 overs (Abu Nechim 62 not out, Rongsen Jonathan 51, Chetan Bist 48, Parvez Ahmed 3/49) beat Mizoram 156 all out in 48 overs (Uday Kaul 39, Iqbal Abdulla 32, Imliwati Lemtur 4/23) by 80 runs. Nagaland: 4 points, Mizoram: 0.