December 17 : Defending Champions of the Vijay Hazare Trophy Karnataka had one of the easiest day on the fields, as they dismissed a clueless Kerala side for a mere 49, and quickly reached the target, in their match at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru.
Kerala won the toss in the morning and decided to bat first, they were left searching for answers, as Karnataka pacers Vinay Kumar and Aravind, troubled the top order, with wickets at regular intervals.
It was only then that Shreyas Gopal was introduced into the attack and created an immediate impact on the game, and eventually turning the match in favour of the home side. His spell of 5/19 ripped apart the middle order, as the visitors were shot out for a paltry score of 49. Karnataka then raced to the target in less than 6 overs of play.
At Alur in Karnataka Mahendra Singh Dhoni chipped in with a useful 30-ball 37 as Jharkhand thrashed Railways by 115 runs . Coming in at 122 for 3 in the 33rd over, Dhoni stitched a 38-run partnership with top-scorer Saurabh Tiwary (49 off 66 balls) for the fourth wicket to help Jharkhand, who batted first, reach 211 for five in a 45-over-a-side match at the KSCA Cricket Ground.
Dhoni hit a four and two sixes in his knock. Captain Kumar Deobrat was the other notable contributor for Jharkhand with a 53-ball 38. Jharkhand’s bowlers, led by left-arm spinner Sonu Singh, then bundled Railways out for 96 in just 37 overs to end the match in a canter.
Sonu returned with impressive figures of 4/15 while Shahbaz Nadeem and Ankit Dabas grabbed two wickets apiece. Monu Kumar and Vikas Singh got a wicket each to complete the route of Railways.
Of Railways’ tally of 96, 44 came from Arindam Ghosh, while the next best was 11.
Jharkhand secured four points from the win while Railways got none.
At Secunderabad Mumbai surprisingly lost to Team Rajasthan by 5 wickets . Batting first Mumbai put up 301/9 . Ajinkya Rahane continued his good form as he scored 114 runs off 112 balls with 10 fours and 2 six . Surya Yadav chipped in with 52 runs for Mumbai . Pankaj Singh got 4 wickets for 55 runs . Chasing 302 runs to win , Team Rajasthan rode on Rajat Bhatia’s stellar knock as he scored 94 runs off 71 balls . His innings was decorated with 8 fours and 3 sixes . Ashoke Maneria took made a substantial contribution with 86 runs . Team Rajasthan reached the target losing just 5 wickets .
Delhi defeated Maharshtra by 5 wickets . Maharashtra scored 194/9 with Kedar Jadhav top scoring with 48 runs . Pawan Negi and Manan Sharma with 5 wickets each . Delhi succesfully chased the target with 14 balls to spare losing only 5 wickets . Both Gautam Gambhir and Unmukt Chand failed with the bat .
In Rajkot , Uttar Pradesh defeated Goa by 6 wickets . Goa scored 218 runs after being sent in to bat . Bhuvaneshwar Kumar , Piyush Chawla picked two wickets each . In reply Uttar Pradesh reached the target in 36.3 overs . Suresh Raina failed again with the bat scoring just 29 runs . Umang Sharma scored 85 runs off 94 balls .
At Palam , Vidharbha won by 10 wickets against Andhra Pradesh . Andhra was bowled out for 87 runs . Umesh Sharma was the peak of the bowlers for Vidharbha taking 3 wickets for 16 runs . Akhshay Karnewar also picked 4 wickets for 13 runs . Vidharbha reached the target successfully without losing a wicket in only 19.2 overs .
A supreme bowling show by the bowlers, led by Swapnil Singh’s five-wicket haul, helped Baroda skittle out Tripura for a paltry 58 and win their Group C match by six wickets in the Vijay Hazare One-day cricket tournament, here on Wednesday. Electing to bat at the Palam Air Force Ground, the Tripura batting fell like a pack of cards against an inspired Baroda bowling.
If left-arm Swapnil led the charge then pace spearhead Irfan Pathan and Yusuf Pathan turned on the heat to make a mockery of the Tripura line-up. Only skipper Manisankar Murasingh (10) could muster a double-figure score as the highest-scorer remained the extras count (16).
Sharing the new ball with Irfan, Swapnil returned with figures of 5-25, while the pace spearhead (2-8) and Yusuf (3-24) shared five wickets between themselves.
Chasing the low total, the Ambati Rayudu-led side also face a scare after losing three quick wickets to be reduced for 13 for three, but the skipper ensured that they canter home in 6.1 overs even after they lost another wicket in Deepak Hooda (11). Pace spearhead Chiranjit Paul bagged three, while Swapan bagged one wicket.
Rayudu (31 not out) and Hardik Pandya (5 not out) were at the crease when Baroda registered their fourth win in six matches so far. Tripura are winless in their five outings.