Vijay Hazare Trophy 2019 | Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh and Services register wins in Jaipur

Rajasthan won the toss at their home stadium, Sawai Mansingh Stadium and elected to field first only for the decision to come back to haunt them. After a wicket fell relatively early on, Qamran Iqbal and Shubham Khajuria dominated the bowlers as both scored half centuries. The former was the first to fall of the two having scored 60 off 58 balls but it was Khajuria’s innings that stood out, as his 94 off 88 balls gave his team the required momentum. Just when Rajasthan seemed to resume control, a well paced innings by Shubham Pundir saw him narrowly miss out on a century as his unbeaten 96 led the team to 317/5 with Rahul Chahar getting two scalps. The Rajasthan openers got off to a brilliant start as they had a 71 run first-wicket partnership, before a 69 run second wicket stand helped them retain momentum. Chetan Bist was involved in both with a gritty 72, while Mahipal Lomror’s 88 stole the spotlight. However, post that wickets kept tumbling at regular intervals as Ram Dayal’s four-wicket haul restricted them to 55 runs short of the target.

Meanwhile in the other game, Madhya Pradesh reaped rewards of selecting to bowl first as a valiant bowling effort had Railways three wickets down for just 15 runs. They never really managed to recover as Karn Sharma high-scored with 25 with Gaurav Pandey’s five-for having them cleaned out for a paltry 108. However, Railways were not ready to give in as they took their three wickets for 25 runs. While T Pradeep’s four wickets meant that the batsmen were under constant pressure, a composed unbeaten 60 from skipper and opener Ojha helped them chase down the score with three wickets in hand.