Vijay Hazare Trophy 2018: Mumbai scrape past Tamil Nadu; Vidarbha thrash Hyderabad
Mumbai made tough work of a target of 184 against Tamil Nadu before finally managing to squeeze through a win by 2 wickets and with seven balls to spare. Hosts Tamil Nadu struggled their way to 183 with the highest contribution coming from Ravichandran Ashwin at number six, who got a patient 41.
Nine out of the eleven batsmen entered double figures but none could hang on to make an impactful score.
Experienced pacer Dhawan Kulkarni bagged 3/44 for Mumbai, including the wicket of Ashwin. Shubham Ranjane and Dhrumil Matkar got two wickets each before their side crumbled in the paltry run chase.
The first collapse happened when they were reduced to 79/5 from 37/2. Ranjane and Shivam Dubey then put on 71 to steady the ship, before 150/5 became 179/8. Ashwin hit back with the ball to wreck the middle-order but Ranjane maintained his composure with 59* to steer home a nervous run chase.
This domestic season's surprise package Vidarbha continued their fine run by crushing Hyderabad by 237 runs after posting a massive 350/6 at the opposition's home ground. Captain Faiz Fazal led the way with a quick-fire 103, and two rapid knocks from Ravi Jingad (81) and Apoorv Wankhede (66) propelled their total. For the hosts, medium-pacer Ravi Teja got two wickets, but their batsmen never got going in such a massive run chase.
Leg-spinner Karn Sharma took 3/38 while left-arm pacer Shrikant Wagh bagged two wickets to ensure Hyderabad's reply never took off. Only wicket-keeper Kolla Sumanth and captain Ambati Rayudu entered double figures from the top seven batsmen, as regular wickets choked them to be finally bowled out for 113, which was lesser than half of Vidarbha's total.
Brief Scores:
Group A
Karnataka 303/6 in 50 overs (Agarwal 84, Samarth 70*; A Ahmed 2/51) beat Assam 192 in 47.2 overs (S Roy 64, A Ahmed 43*; Krishna 6/33) by 111 runs
Baroda 250/9 in 50 overs (Solanki 67, Hooda 46; A Mishra 3/57) beat Haryana 199 in 45 overs (Rohilla 61, J Yadav 55; Swapnil 3/42) by 51 runs
Punjab 225 in 49.5 overs (Gurkeerat 106*, Kaul 22; Behera 3/19) beat Odisha 139 in 41 overs (Patra 26; Sran 4/22, Gony 3/25) by 86 runs
Group C
Madhya Pradesh 253/6 in 45 overs (Harpreet 76, Rameez 75; Chawla 3/54) beat Gujarat 248 in 49.4 overs (Panchal 65, Bhatt 56; Tripathi 4/37) by 4 wickets
Mumbai 184/8 in 48.5 overs (Ranjane 59*; Ashwin 3/35, Vignesh 2/32) beat Tamil Nadu 183 in 49.3 overs (Ashwin 41; Kulkarni 3/44, Ranjane 2/28) by 2 wickets
Goa 267/7 in 49.5 overs (Misal 66*, Prabhudessai 59; Lamba 2/50) beat Rajasthan 266/8 in 50 overs (Chundawat 71*, Garhwal 40; A Desai 4/41) by 3 wickets
Group D
Vidarbha 350/6 in 50 overs (Fazal 103, Jangid 81; Ravi Teja 2/53) beat Hyderabad 113 in 34.2 overs (Sumanth 30; Karn 3/38, Wagh 2/20) by 237 runs
Jammu & Kashmir 269/4 in 49 overs (Rasool 67*, Bandy 65; Makvana 3/36) beat Saurashtra 267/6 in 50 overs (Vasavada 84, Mankad 67; Raza 2/45) by 6 wickets
Jharkhand 203/5 in 30.5 overs (Kishan 106, S Tiwary 56*; V Yadav 2/23) beat Services 202/9 in 50 overs (Sethi 66; Aaron 3/20, A Roy 2/26) by 5 wickets