Virat Singh of Jharkhand and Abhishekh Sharma of Punjab, the two centurions stole the show in the Syed Mushtaq Ali on Thursday. Karnataka and RCB’s Devdutt Padikkal missed out on his century by just one run but his effort was enough to ensure victory for his state.
Among the best bowling efforts, Baroda’s Lukman Meriwala impressed as he bagged a five-for in his team’s nine-wicket win over Chhattisgarh.
For Bengal Ishan Porel and Akash Deep took four wickets each as they beat Hyderabad by six wickets.
The day began with fireworks from Virat as he smashed 12 boundaries and three sixes in his knock of 103 off 53 deliveries against Assam. Well supported by Saurabh Tiwary and Kumar Deobrat, Jharkhand posted a huge score of 233 in their 20 overs.
Assam put up a fighting show with the bat but eventually fell short by 51 runs.
At the same time, Abhishek Sharma scored another brilliant century. There was even more power-hitting involved as he hit nine sixes in his knock of 107 in 62 deliveries. However, after a 129-run opening stand, Sharma didn’t get a lot of support as Railways restricted Punjab to 200.
However, Harpreet Brar and Arshdeep Singh starred with the ball for Punjab who bowled Railways out for just 83.
For Karnataka, Padikkal’s knock proved to be crucial as the rest of the batting failed to hold up. They finished on 167 in their 20 overs. But the bowlers held their nerves to help Karnataka to a 10-run victory over Tripura.
Left-arm pacer Lukman Meriwala’s fifer was the cornerstone of Baroda’s thumping nine-wicket win over Chhattisgarh in an Elite Group C.
Put in to bat at the FB Colony ground, Chhattisgarh were bundled out for just 90 runs as the Baroda bowlers, led by Meriwala (5/8), wreaked havoc on the visiting batsmen.
Meriwala was ably supported by off-spinner Kartik Kakade (2/17) and left-arm spinners Krunal Pandya (1/20) and Ninad Rathwa (1/16) as they never allowed the opposition batsmen to settle down.
For Chhattisgarh, opener and wicket-keeper Shashank Chandrakar top-scored with a 20, as the rest of his batting colleagues fell cheaply. They lost half their side for 54 and their innings never really got going.
The chase was a walk in the park for Baroda, despite losing opener Ninad Rathwa (0) early.
Experienced Kedar Devdhar (44 not out; 7x4) and one-down Vishnu Solanki (42 not out; 5x4, 1x6) forged an unbeaten 86-run second wicket stand as they tore into a listless Chhattisgarh attack and took their side home in just 12.3 overs.
This was Baroda’s third win in the league stage, having earlier defeated Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand in the first two games.
Other results:
At Motibaug ground: Himachal Pradesh 141/5 (Rishi Dhawan 43, Digvijay Rangi 35 not out; Axar Patel 1/16) beat Gujarat 115 all out (Piyush Chawla 39; Vaibhav Arora 3/16, Pankaj Jaiswal 2/19) by 26 runs.
At Reliance ground: Maharashtra 141/4 (Kedar Jadhav 61, Azmi Kazi 31 not out; Dikshanshu Negi 1/18) lost to Uttarakhand 145/4 (Jay Bista 69 not out, Dikshanshu Negi 23; Divyang Himganekar 1/11) by six wickets.
At Eden Gardens: Odisha 132/9 (20) lost to Tamil Nadu 136/2 (15.1)
At KSCA Ground: Uttar Pradesh 124/5 (20) lost to Jammu and Kashmir 126/2 (15)
(With PTI inputs)
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