Vijay Hazare Trophy Round-up | Elite Group B: Delhi top the group table after beating Andhra convincingly

Delhi vs Andhra

Brief scores: Delhi 314/5 in 50 overs (Himmat Singh 102*, Unmukt Chand 62; Girinath Reddy 2-67) beat Andhra 241 in 49.5 overs (Prashanth Kumar 54, Ricky Bhui 48; Pawan Negi 2-41, Kulwant Khejroliya 2-29, Nitish Rana 2-9) by 73 runs.

Going into the First vs Second match, Andhra Pradesh had a chance to secure top spot as they were sitting atop of the Elite Group B, with a four-point lead over Delhi already in place. Put into bat, Delhi were in the business right from the word go as they posted a mighty total of 314/5 on the board. Himmat Singh scored 102 after Unmukt Chand’s 62 and Captain Gambhir’s 37 at the top of the order. In the middle-order, contributions from Nitish Rana (52) and Lalit Yadav (23) helped them cross the 300-run mark. 

Chasing 315, Delhi bowlers didn’t allow Andhra to dominate as they dismissed openers within the first six overs. Prashanth Kumar and captain Ricky Bhui gave some hopes with their partnership but could not build upon their start as Delhi regained control and Andhra Pradesh fell before reaching the 250-run mark and ended up with 241 runs on the board. After the win, Delhi replaced Andhra on the top with 18 points while Andhra Pradesh comes down to third with 18 points. 

Punjab vs Railways

Brief Scores: Punjab 286/4 in 50 over (Gurkeerat Singh 101, Yuvraj Singh 96; Chandrakant Sakure 3-85, Madhur Khatri 1-26) beat Railways 210 in 44.3 overs (Saurabh Wakaskar 104, Manish Rao 30; Mayank Markande 3-40, Arshdeep Singh 2-39) by 56 runs (VJD Method)

In another one-sided fixture, Punjab made sure they remain in contention for the Knockout stages with an outstanding overall performance in their game against Kerala at the Palam A Stadium in Delhi. Kerala, batting first, struggled from the ball one itself when Arun Karthik was bowled by Ravi Kiran. Contributions from Middle and lower order batsmen alongside a fighting 62 by Vasudevan Arundhadi Jagadeesh helped Kerala reach 189/6 in 50 overs. Kerala did have some hope when Tanmay Agarwal’s wicket fell in the third over, but Hyderabad regained control with all other batsmen crossing 35 runs each and a half-century for Rohit Rayudu. With the Victory, Punjab also join the battle for the top spot in Elite Group B as they sit second with 18 points but have played an extra game. The result means Kerala’s chances to make the knockouts getting even slimmer.

Odisha vs Chhattisgarh

Brief scores: Chhattisgarh 212 in 49.5 overs (Harpreet Singh 43, Shakeeb Ahmed 38; Anurag Sarangi 3-26) beat Odisha 164 in 41 overs (Biplab Samantaray 38; Pankaj Rao 3-15, Shivendra Singh 3-31) by 48 runs.

Chattisgarh also made sure that they remain in the fight of qualification for Knockouts with a 48-run win over Odisha. Chattisgarh reached 212-10 in 49.5 overs through various contributions in the team including a 43 form Captain Harpreet Singh, 38 from Ashutosh Singh and Shakeeb Ahmed. Anurag Sarangi would have thought his 3 wickets for 25 runs would have been enough to give his team a victory, but after a fast start, Odisha struggled to keep the pace up as the whole team fell for 164 runs gifting Chattisgarh a much-needed victory. Pankaj Kumar Rao and Shivendra Singh picked up 3 wickets apiece.  

Elite Group B remains the tightest group of the four elite groups. Even after Round 9, three teams - Delhi, Andhra and Hyderabad - still fight for the top spot.