A roundup of the Vijay Hazare Trophy one-day matches played on Saturday.
Group A:
Left-arm pacer Jaydev Unadkat produced an inspired show with the ball to hand Saurashtra an eight-wicket win over Himachal Pradesh and help consolidate their position at the top of Group A in the Vijay Hazare Trophy one-day tournament in New Delhi, on Saturday.
Unadkat (5/23) returned with a five-wicket haul and along with Chetan Sakariya (2/30) wreaked havoc with the new ball to bundle out Himachal for a paltry 130 in 36.4 overs after electing to bowl.
Besides the duo, Chirag Jani (1/21), Prerak Mankad (1/7) and Dharmendrasinh Jadeja (1/28) also chipped in with a wicket each.
The dominance of Saurashtra's bowlers could be gauged from the fact that Himachal lost their first seven wickets for just 22 runs.
Had it not been for Summet Verma's 99-ball 82, which had seven fours and four sixes, Himachal were staring at a bigger embarrassment, as Digvijay Rangi (10) was the only other batter from the hilly state to reach a double-digit score.
Saurashtra chased down the total with consummate ease, reaching 134 for two in 27.2 overs.
Sheldon Jackson scored an unbeaten 56 while Cheteshwar Pujara remained unbeaten on 31. Rishi Dhawan (1/21) and Vaibhav Arora (1/45) picked up the wickets for Himachal.
Brief scores of other matches in Group A:
Tripura 228 all out in 49.2 overs (Wriddhiman Saha 81, Manisankar Murasingh 69; Arzan Nagwaswalla 5/40) vs Gujarat 230 for 3 in 45 overs (Het Patel 74 not out, Priyesh Patel 67; Deepak Khatri 1/32).
Manipur 191 for 8 in 50 overs (Bikash Singh 44; Mehrdtra Shashank 3/16) vs Hyderabad 192 for 3 in 28.1 overs (Tilak Verma 126 not out; Rex Rajkumar 2/33).
Uttar Pradesh 309 for 4 in 50 overs (Madhav Kaushik 134, Sandeep Sharma 3/66) vs Chandigarh 310 for 5 in 50 overs (Arslan Z Khan 141 not out; Bhagmender Lather 100; Aaqib Khan 2/51, Kartik Tyagi 2/57).
Group B:
Part-time off-spinners Lalit Yadav and Nitish Rana shared six wickets amongst themselves as Delhi thrashed minnows Sikkim by 10 wickets in Kolkata on Saturday to keep their slim quarter-final hopes alive.
Having lost back-to-back games, Delhi were on the money at the CC&FC ground as Sikkim were bundled out for 76 in 34.4 overs.
Rana (3/12 in 6 overs), Yadav (3/12 in 8 overs) along with specialist off-break bowler Shivank Vasisht (1/16 in 6 overs) shared the bulk of the spoils after Delhi elected to field on a track which is known for being tacky.
Out of the 11 Sikkim batters, eight of them couldn't even cross the five-run mark with Pankaj Rawat's 32 being the top score.
Needing to up the run rate, the normally stodgy Dhruv Shorey (43 not out, 28 balls) and all-rounder Kunwar Bidhuri (33 not out of 28 balls) knocked off the runs in just 9.2 overs notch up the team's third win in five games. While Shorey's innings had eight fours, Bidhuri hit three fours and two sixes.
With 12 points and a net run-rate of +0.622, Delhi are now placed fourth in the group behind Assam (16 points, NRR +1.776), Karnataka (16 points, NRR +1.674) and Jharkhand (16, NRR +1.547), all of whom have four wins in their kitty.
In the other matches of the group, Jharkhand crushed Meghalaya by 192 runs while Rajasthan beat Vidarbha by six wickets. The fourth match in this group had Assam upsetting the mighty Karnataka by six wickets, riding on Swarupam Purkayastha's century.
Brief scores of other matches in Group B:
Jharkhand 321/2 (Utkarsh Singh 128 not out, Virat Singh 112). Meghalaya 129 in 40.3 overs (Punit Bisht 50, Vikash Singh 3/17). Jharkhand won by 192 runs.
Karnataka 296/4 (Nikin Jose 100, Mayank Agarwal 64, Manish Pandey 58). Assam 297/4 in 48.2 overs (Swarupam Purkayastha 112, Sibsankar Roy 66). Assam won by 6 wickets.
Vidarbha 240 in 47.2 overs (Atharva Taide 51, Kamlsh Nagarkoti 3/49). Rajasthan 243/4 in 44 .1 overs (Yash Kothari 109, Mahipal Lomror 81). Rajasthan won by 6 wkts.
Group C:
N Jagadeesan continued his superb run, hammering a fourth hundred on the trot, as Tamil Nadu recorded a massive 151-run win over Haryana in a Group C match in Bengaluru on Saturday.
Sent in to bat by Harayana skipper Himanshu Rana, Tamil Nadu rode on Jagadeesan's 128 (123 balls, 6 fours, 6 sixes) and fellow opening batter B Sai Sudharsan's 67 (74 balls, 5 fours, 1 six) to post 284 for seven in 50 overs.
A 151-run opening stand between Jagadeesan and Sudharsan in a little more than 26 overs saw Tamil Nadu seize the advantage.
The hundred for Jagadeesan makes him the fourth batter after Kumar Sangakkara, Alviro Petersen and Devdutt Padikkal to record centuries in four consecutive List A innings. His previous centuries came against Andhra, Chhattisgarh and Goa.
Jagadeesan hit six fours and six sixes in his brisk innings while Sudharsan, who has been in good form in the tournament, matched him stroke for stroke.
The Haryana bowlers appeared to be struggling to find ways to contain the TN batters when Jagadeesan and Sudharsan were at the crease. Sudhrasan fell to left-arm spinner Nishant Sindhu.
B Aparajith (3) and B Indrajith (2) fell quickly to Mohit Sharma (2/43) and Haryana had more success when J Kousik (5) was dismissed by Anshul Kamboj.
This brought Jagadeesan and the power-hitting Shahrukh Khan (46) to the crease and they added 61 runs in quick time.
In reply, Haryana slipped to 2 for 2 in the second over as openers C K Bishnoi and Yuvraj Singh fell to Sandeep Warrier (2/33) and M Mohammed (2/37), respectively.
Haryana never recovered from the poor start and kept losing wickets at regular intervals to be bowled out 133 in 28.3 overs.
Off-spinner Aparajith was the best bowler for Tamil Nadu with 3 for 24 while R Sonu Yadav picked up two wickets.
Brief scores of other matches in Group C:
Andhra 259 for 9 in 50 overs (Ricky Bhui 46, Abhishek Reddy 31, K Nitish Kumar Reddy 31, Karan Shinde 28) beat Kerala 183 all out in 44.1 overs (Akshay Chandran 41, Sachin Baby 35, Sijimon Joseph 32, Nitish Kumar Reddy 3/23, B Ayyappa 3/41) by 76 runs. Andhra: 4 points, Kerala: 0.
Chhattisgarh 304 for 7 in 50 overs (Harpreet Singh Bhatia 120 (108 balls, 7X4, 4X6), Sanidhya Hurkat 74, Ashutosh Singh 35) beat Bihar 241 for 9 in 50 overs (Bipin Saurabh 110 not out, Shishir Saket 32, S S Agarwal 3/47) by 63 runs. Chhattisgarh: 4 points, Bihar: 0.
Arunachal Pradesh 175 all out in 50 overs Kamsha Yangfo 63, Doria 50, Amulya Pandrekar 5/41, Lakshay A Garg 3/32) lost to Goa 176 for 5 in 25.3 overs (Snehal Kauthankar 68, Suyash S Prabudessai 62) by five wickets. Goa: 4 points, Arunachal: 0.
Group D:
Mumbai: Punjab skipper Mandeep Singh led from the front with a gritty 90 to guide his team to a 26-run win over Madhya Pradesh in the Vijay Hazare Trophy here on Saturday.
In a low-scoring affair at the Wankhede Stadium, Mandeep steered Punjab to 232 with other contributions coming from opener Abhishek Sharma (33) and Anmol Malhotra (32).
Punjab lost their last five wickets for 23 runs as pacer Kuldeep Sen cleaned up the tail to end up with a five-wicket haul.
Madhya Pradesh fell way short of the 233-run target, ending with 206 all out in 47.1 overs.
Senior Punjab pacer Siddharth Kaul struck thrice while spinners Harpeet Brar and Abhishek Sharma took two wickets each.
It was the fourth win for Punjab in as many games while Madhya Pradesh suffered their second loss in four games.
Group E:
Rahul Tripathi's superb knock of 111 was the cornerstone of Maharashtra's 61-run win over Services in a Group E match in Ranchi on Saturday.
Services won the toss and sent the opposition into bat and saw Tripathi come up with a ton. The right-handed batter Tripathi and his 140-run stand for the third wicket with captain Ankit Bawane (73) powered the Maharashtra innings.
Though they appeared to lose steam towards the end and lost a few wickets, Maharashtra still ended up with a huge score of 304 for 8 in 50 overs.
Shubham Rohilla (114, 102 balls, 13 fours, 3 sixes) came up with a power-packed effort for Services but it was not enough as the other batters failed to make substantial contributions.
Services captain Rajit Paliwal (35) helped Rohilla add 72 runs for the third wicket but the others did not measure up.
Brief scores of other matches in Group E:
Maharashtra 304 for 8 in 50 overs (Rahul Tripathi 111 (113 balls, 14X4, 1X6), Ankit Bawane 73 (85 balls, 6X4, 2X6), AN Kazi 25, Diwesh Pathania 3/53, Abhishek 3/61) beat Services 243 all out 46.4 overs (S G Rohilla 114, Rajat Paliwal 35, Mohd Ingale 4/40, Rajyavardhan Hangargekar 2/40) by 61 runs. Maharashtra: 4 points, Services: 0.
Bengal 248 for 9 in 50 overs (Abhishek Porel 54, Abhimanyu Easwaran 50, Writtick Chatterjee 37 not out, Dhrushant Soni 3/44, Karn Sharma 3/44) beat Railways 191 all out in 43.2 overs (Upendra Yadav 39, Arindam Ghosh 23, Manoj Tiwary 3/26, Geet Puri 2/36) by 57 runs. Bengal: 4 points, Railways: 0.
Mizoram 188 for 9 in 50 overs (Shreevats Goswami 56, Taruwar Kohli 47, Royston Dias 3/30) lost to Mumbai 192 for 3 in 22.5 overs (Prithvi Shaw 54 (39 balls, 8X4, 2X6), Yashasvi Jaiswal 63 (45 balls, 10X4, 1X6), Armaan Jaffer 55 (40 balls, 5X4, 3X6)) by 7 wickets. Mumbai: 4 points, Mizoram: 0.
