Skipper Shreyas Iyer and Suryakumar Yadav hit responsible fifties as defending champions Mumbai registered their first win in this year’s Vijay Hazare Trophy after defeating Saurashtra by five wickets in Bengaluru on Tuesday.
After restricting Saurashtra to 245/9 in their Elite Group A match at the Alur cricket stadium III, Mumbai romped home with two overs to spare courtesy Iyer’s gritty 75 and Surya’s formidable unbeaten 85.
Asked to bat first, Saurashtra opener Harvik Desai (0) was trapped in front of the wicket by experienced pacer Dhawal Kulkarni.
Then Sheldon Jackson (35) and one-down Samarth Vyas (34) tried to resurrect the innings with their 78-run stand for the second wicket. But as the duo was poised for a big score, spinner Shams Mulani sent them back in quick succession as Saurashtra were in a spot of bother at 3/79.
Arpit Vasavada showed some composure and made a gritty 59 off 75 balls, striking five fours, to rebuild the Saurashtra innings.
After Vasavada fell, it was due to an unbeaten 40 by No 7 batsman Chirag Jani, that Saurashtra went past the 240-run mark.
For Mumbai,experienced pacer Shardul Thakur and Mulani grabbed three wickets each.
The chase was not a walk in the park for the Vinayak Samant-coached team as they lost Jay Bista (2) and Siddesh Lad (0) inside the first two overs.
Then skipper Shreyas Iyer (73) and Aditya Tare (29) conjured a 101-run stand for the third wicket to steady Mumbai’s ship. The duo took the Saurashtra bowlers to task as Iyer struck eight fours and two sixes in his 82-ball knock, while Tare hit two boundaries.
However, after the two and all-rounder Shivam Dube (9) walked back to the pavilion, Surya Kumar Yadav (85 not out) took the onus and stitched an unbeaten 115-run stand with Shubham Ranjane (45 not out) as the duo ensured that the team registered a win and bounced back from their upset defeat against Chhatisgarh.
Surya’s blazing knock had nine fours and three sixes, while Ranjane played the perfect foil, striking four boundaries and a six as the two took Mumbai home.
In the second Elite Group A game, Hyderabad ended a long winless streak against Karnataka by 21 runs to grab four points.
Ambati Rayadu, who came out of retirement recently, held the fort for Hyderabad with an unbeaten 87 and later slow-left arm orthodox bowler B Sandeep grabbed four wickets.
Brief scores: Saurashtra 245/9 (A V Vasavada 59, Chirag Jani 40 not out; Shardul Thakur 3-36) lost to Mumbai 248/5 (Surya Kumar Yadav 85 not out, Shreyas Iyer 73, Shubham Ranjane 45 not out; Kushang Patel 2-13) by 5 wickets.
Mumbai 4 points, Saurashtra 0 points.
Hyderabad 198/9 (Ambati Rayudu 87 not out, CV Milind 36; Ronit More 2-31) beat Karnataka 177 all out (Devdutt Paddikal 60, Manish Pandey 48; B Sandeep 4-35) by 21 runs.
Hyderabad 4 points, Karnataka 0 points.
Dinesh Karthik in fine form
Skipper Dinesh Karthik starred with a superb knock of 97 (62 balls, 8 fours, 4 sixes) as Tamil Nadu beat Bengal by 74 runs to notch up their fourth straight win in Group ‘C’ of the Vijay Hazare Trophy in Jaipur on Tuesday.
Sent in to bat, Tamil Nadu was in a spot of bother at 123/5 in the 37th over before recovering to finish with 286/7 in 50 overs, thanks to a splendid century sixth-wicket partnership between Karthik and Shahrukh Khan (69 not out, 45 balls, 4 fours, 5 sixes).
In reply, Bengal were bowled out for 212 in 45.3 overs, thanks to a disciplined effort by the TN bowlers.
The Tamil Nadu medium-pacers K Vignesh (2/26) and T Natarajan (2/33) reduced Bengal to 21/5 before the left-handed Shahbaz (107, 131 balls, 7 fours, 6 sixes) fought back single-handedly.
He smashed the ball around but his effort was in vain as Vignesh, Natarajan and Aparajith stuck to their task.
Earlier, the Tamil Nadu skipper led the revival in the company of Shahrukh Khan, who smashed four boundaries and five sixes in his quick-fire 69 off 45 balls. The two added 153 runs in 12 overs, smashing the Bengal bowlers all over the park.
The Bengal bowlers had struck at regular intervals, starting with the dismissal of N Jagadeesan (8) in the 5th over. Only B Aparajith (34) made a significant contribution among the top-order batsmen even as Dinda and the other bowlers kept chipping away.
However, the game was a reality check for young paceman Ishan Porel, who took six wickets in the game against Jammu & Kashmir on Monday and then went wicketless in 10 overs giving away 55 runs.
In other matches, Gujarat posted an easy seven-wicket win over Rajasthan and Services overcame Railways rather comfortably.
Tamil Nadu is top of the points table with 16 from 4 games, followed by Gujarat (14).
Brief scores: Rajasthan 102 all out in 40.1 overs (M N Singh 35, Rush Kalaria 3/15 , A Nagwaswalla 3/30) lost to Gujarat 103 for 3 in 25.3 overs (Dhruv Raval 34 not out, Priyank Panchal 32).
Gujarat: 4 points, Rajasthan: 0.
Tamil Nadu 286 for 7 in 50 overs (Dinesh Karthik 97, Shahrukh Khan 69 not out, Vijay Shankar 41, Ashoke Dinda 2/60) beat Bengal 212 all out in 45.3 overs (Shahbaz Ahmed 107, K Vignesh 2/26).
TN: 4 points, Bengal: 0.
Railways 251 for 6 in 50 overs (Arindam Ghosh 79, Pratham Singh 44, Karn Sharma 44, Vikrant Singh 41, Varun Choudhary 3/58) lost to Services 252 for 5 in 48.5 overs (Nakul Varma 108, Rajat Paliwal 56, Vikrant Singh 2/47).
Services: 4 points, Railways: 0.
Chandigarh post win
Left-arm spinner Gurinder Singh claimed three wickets as Chandigarh defeated Sikkim by four wickets in a rain-curtailed Plate Group match of the tournament in Dehradun.
Gurinder returned with figures of 4-0-19-3 as Sikkim were restricted to a paltry 111/4 after electing to bat in the rain-hit match that was reduced to 21-overs-a-side affair at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.
Yashpal Singh (39 not out from 32 balls; 4x4s, 1x6) was the top-scorer for Sikkim, while Iqbal Abdulla (20 from 16 balls) and Palzor Tamang (13 not out from 14 balls) also made some contributions.
But it was not enough to propel their run-rate with the left-arm spin duo of Gurinder and Bipul Sharma (4-1-13-0) making a significant impact in the middle overs.
In reply, Chandigarh were cruising at 65/0 in 61 balls before losing quick wickets to be reduced to 106/6 in the penultimate over.
Needing six runs from the last over, Gurinder hit a boundary to seal four points and a first win for Chandigarh.
The other two plate group matches between Nagaland versus Meghalaya and Uttarkhand versus Manipur were abandoned with each team securing two points each.
Brief scores:
At Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium: Sikkim 111/4 in 21 overs (Gurinder Singh 3/19) vs Chandigarh 115/6 in 20.4 overs. Chandigarh won by five wickets.
Points: Chandigarh: 4, Sikkim: 2.
At Abhimanyu Cricket Academy: Nagaland vs Meghalaya. Match Abandoned.
Points: Nagaland: 2, Meghalaya: 2.
At Tanush Academy Ground: Uttarakhand vs Manipur. Match Abandoned. Points:
Uttarakhand 2, Manipur 2.
With PTI inputs
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