Vijay Hazare Trophy | Bihar, Andhra Pradesh clinch quarter final spots after convincing victories

Plate Group

Bihar registered a commanding nine-wicket win to enter the quarter-finals of the Vijay Hazare trophy. Bihar captain Keshav Kumar and left-arm spinner Ashutosh Aman were vital in the first innings as they brought about an incredible collapse of the Mizoram innings. Post the dismissal of Mizoram’s Michael Lalremkima in the tenth over, the north-eastern state managed to score just 43 runs for the loss of the entire batting line-up and ended with a paltry total of 83 runs. All eight batsmen after Rajput and Lalremkima registered single-digit scores, as five of them fell for naught.

Arunachal Pradesh vs Uttarakhand

Brief Scores: Uttarakhand 264 in 49.4 overs (Saurabh Rawat 67, Malolan Rangarajan 50; Sams Alam 2-39, Sandeep Thakur 2-41) beat Arunachal Pradesh 156/9 in 50 overs (Akhilesh Sahani 41; Rajat Bhatia 3-17, Malolan Rangarajan 2-12, Mayank Mishra 2-26) by 108 runs

Arunachal Pradesh, however, failed to capitalise on their three partnerships at the top and hence paid the price in the end. At 70 for 3, there was still some hope but then AP’s innings took a turn for the worse. Arunachal Pradesh dragged their feet till the final over, but finished on 156 for 9, short of the target by a massive 108-run margin. Rajat Bhatia starred for the bowling side with figures of 3 for 17 in 10 overs, while Rangarajan was also highly economical.

Meghalaya v Puducherry

Puducherry managed to make it four wins out of four to end their campaign with 24 points and finish third in the Plate Group. And they had Paras Dogra to thank after the batsman scored a brilliant unbeaten century against Meghalaya. Half-centuries from captain D Rohit and Abhishek Nayar allowed Puducherry to post 324 for the loss of 5 at the end of 50 overs.

Meghalaya tried their best to hunt for a win despite a slow start to their innings. Batsmen Yogesh Nagar (109 not out) and Gurinder Singh (72) kept the north-eastern outfit in the game. The duo bravely added 133 runs to the total but in the end, Meghalaya fell short of the target by a good 74 runs.

Madhya Pradesh vs Andhra

Brief scores: Madhya Pradesh 155 in 41.4 overs (Anand Bais 70; Shoaib Md Khan 4-16) lost to Andhra 156/3 in 34.5 overs (Ricky Bhui 56*; Kumar Kartikeya 3-28) by seven wickets.

MP, who opted to bat first, got off to a poor start as they lost openers - Naman Ojha and Ankush Singh - with just 12 runs on the board. Anand Bais restored parity to the innings with a 103-ball 70. He also put up a partnership of 63 for the third wicket with Yash Dubey. But once off-spinner - Md Khan, dismissed Dubey, MP crumbled and managed to get only 155 runs in 42 overs.

In response to that, Andhra lost their first three wickets for just 53 runs. But Bhui and Bodapati Sumanth stayed put and conjured a partnership of 103 for the fourth wicket to secure a spot in the knockout stages.

Brief scores: Baroda 206 in 50 overs (Yusuf Pathan 64*; Samad Fallah 3/21) lost to Maharashtra (Naushad Shaikh 76*; Atit Sheth 3/36) by five wickets.

Maharashtra beat Baroda by five wickets and secured a quarterfinal berth at Baroda’s expense in the Vijay Hazare Trophy on Monday. Baroda, who opted to bat, lost their openers early on in the inning. But the middle-order pair of Krunal Pandya and Yusuf Pathan, who both slammed half-centuries, helped them reach a total of 206 after 50.

Delhi vs Chhattisgarh

Brief scores: Delhi 245/9 in 50 overs (Lakshay Thareja 53; Shivendra Singh 2-31) beat Chhattisgarh 201 in 45.1 overs (Ajay Jadav Mandal 40; Kulwant Khejroliya 4-27) by 44 runs

While chasing down a competitive target of 246, Ajay Jadav Mandal (40), Shakeeb Ahmed (38) and Manoj Singh (30) made decent contributions for Chhattisgarh. However, that wasn’t enough to win them the game. Some good bowling from Negi and Khejroliya ensured that their team would win the match by a comfortable margin of 44-runs and make the quarters.

Karnataka v Punjab

Anmolpreet Singh’s brilliant century and his 198-run opening stand with Shubman Gill helped Punjab to a six-wicket win over Karnataka at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. Siddharth Kaul's five-wicket haul pegged Karnataka back in the death overs. But Manish Pandey and Sharath BR took Karnataka to a challenging total. 

Punjab's openers made things look so easy, as Singh and Gill put up a fantastic show. Karnataka lost by six wickets and that ended their dismal campaign in this year’s tournament.

Brief scores: Kerala 316/7 in 50 overs (Sachin Baby 93, Vishnu Vinod 62; Jay Chauhan 3-63) beat Saurashtra 270 in 49.3 overs (Samarth Vyas 91; Basil Thampi 4-52) by 46 runs.

Sachin Baby (93) and Vishnu Vinod (62) registered two important half-centuries to help Kerala to a 46-run victory over Saurashtra at the Palam B stadium in Delhi.

It was never going to be an easy chase for Saurashtra, but they got off to a bad start and lost wickets at regular intervals and found themselves in trouble at 99 for 5. Samarth Vyas (91) and Chirag Jani (66) tried to keep their side in the hunt. But Basil Thampi secured a four-wicket haul as Kerala beat their opponents by 46 runs. Kerala racked up a total of 18 points while Saurashtra could eke out just two 12 from eight games.

Goa v Vidarbha

In a nerve biting finish, Vidarbha kept their calm to outplay Goa by 1 run at Alur on Monday. Chasing 219 to win, Goa's middle order of Amit Verma, Vishamber Kahlon and Snehal Suhas kept their side in the game after the early loss of the openers. Suyash Prabhudessai chipped in with an invaluable innings to take the game into the death-overs and his ninth-wicket stand with Krishna Das made sure that the game went right down to the wire.

Vidarbha's bowlers were on high alert and kept things tight right from the start. Darshan Nalkande and Akshay Wakhare lead the way with three wickets each. By not allowing Goa to run away with the game, they made sure the match went deep into the final overs and eventually held their nerve to win the thriller by a single run.