As the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2015-16 approaches the business end of the league phase, Punjab and Jharkhand are leading the points table in Group A and B respectively. The top three teams of Group C – Vidarbha, Delhi and Maharashtra are tied on points after playing four matches each. Group D, too, has the top four teams tied on points after three games each.
On Tuesday (15 December) Yuvraj Singh batted Punjab to victory with a quick-fire 78 while debutant spinner Sonu Kumar Singh shone with his maiden four-for to take the team to a win. Shardul Thakur was key to Mumbai’s win as they secured the second position with a win over services in Group A. Defending champions Karnataka’s misfortune continued as they lost to Jharkhand and are in the bottom half of the table.
Here are the highlights of the day:Group AServices vs Mumbai: Services 151/10 (N Verma 50, S Thakur 4/19, D Kulkarni 2/22, I Abdullah 2/24, S Singh 2/25) lost to Mumbai (A Herwadkar 46, S Iyer 35, A Bloch 2/27) by 6 wickets.
With his first four-for of the tournament, Shardul Thakur helped skittle Services out for 151 in Hyderabad. After skipper Aditya Tare opted to field, the pacer left Services reeling on 13 for two, Dhawal Kulkarni, Iqbal Abdullah and Shashank Singh too claimed two wickets each to set-up the match for Mumbai.
However, while chasing the small total, Mumbai lost four wickets until Ajinkya Rahane (10*) and Tare (22*) took the team to the target in 25.2 overs. Opener Akhil Herwadkar was the top-scorer for the team with 46 runs.
Punjab vs Team Rajasthan: Team Rajasthan 270/7 (MN Singh 118, B Sran 4/60) lost to Punjab (Y Singh 78*, J Singh 66, M Singh 60, S Dobal 2/27) by 6 wickets.
Team Rajasthan opener, MN Singh's maiden List A century went in vain as Yuvraj Singh led Punjab to a six-wicket win.
Punjab pacer Brainder Sran claimed four for 60 as MN Singh helped Rajasthan to 270 for seven.
Jiwanjot Singh set Punjab's chase on course with a 66-run knock. Mandeep Singh, who came into the match on the back of a century, consolidated the team's position with a 64-ball 60 before departing. Yuvraj Singh then took the team across the line with an unbeaten 78. His 59-ball knock comprised two sixes and ten boundaries.
Hyderabad vs Assam: Hyderabad 217/8 (T Agarwal 83, GH Vihari 51, A Das 3/45, J Bhumiz 3/58) beat Assam 199/10 (PK Das 54, R Kiran 3/30, CV Milind 3/44) by 72 runs
Tanmay Agarwal's 83 and captain GH Vihari's 51 helped Hyderabad set their first win of the tournament in the ongoing season. The Ravi Kiran-led attack then bowled Assam out for 199 to take the team to victory. The pacer and CV Milind took three wickets each.
Group B
Railways vs J & K: Railways 200/10 (K Sharma 60, W Raza 4/31, B Singh 2/19) beat J & K 157/10 (I Chauhan 60, A Yadav 3/28, K Sharma 2/24) by 43 runs
Captain Karn Sharma starred in Railways win against J & K in a low-scoring game. With a well compiled 60 he lifted the team to 200 before being bowled out. In the match dominated by spinners, J & K's left-arm spinner, Waseem Raza claimed four for 31, his maiden List A four-wicket haul while Bandeep Singh picked two.
Karn then returned to claim two wickets while left-arm spinner Ashish Yadav took three wickets as they bowled the team to a comprehensive 43-run win.
Karnataka vs Jharkhand: Jharkhand 216/8 (I Jaggi 50, K Deobrat 47*, J Suchith 4/35) beat Karnataka 169/10 (KL Rahul 42, J Suchith 34, S Nadeem 3/15, Sonu Singh 3/20) by 47 runs.
Jharkhand strengthened their position at the top of the Group B table with a thumping win over defending champions Karnataka.
Propelled by half-centurion Ishank Jaggi and sizeable contributions by Saurabh Tiwary (43) and Kumar Deobrat (47*) the Varun Aaron-led team set the opposition a 217-run target.
As spinners dominated the game, J Suchith claimed four for 35 as Karnataka looked to keep Jharkhand in check after electing to field.
Debutant left-arm spinner, Sonu Kumar Singh then claimed three for 15 while, Shahbaz Nadeem too picked three wickets to wrap-up Karnataka for 169 and claim a victory.
Haryana vs Gujarat: Gujarat 259/10 ( R Bhatt 55, P Patel 45, A Mishra 3/44) beat Haryana 231/10 (P Mehta 57, R Dagar 53, R Kalaria 4/37, J Bumrah 2/38) by 28 runs.
Defending 259 runs, Gujarat's pace attack bowled the team to a 28-run win to keep the team in the race for a place in the knock-outs.
Left-arm pacer Rush Kalaria claimed four for 37 while RP Singh and Jasprit Bumrah took two wickets each to bowl Haryana out with a ball to spare.
Earlier, R Bhatt was the top-scorer for Gujarat with 55 while captain Parthiv Patel scored 45 to help set a competitive target for Haryana.
Group C
Tripura vs Vidarbha: Vidarbha 324/5 (G Satish 140*, J Sharma 105, R Datta 2/57) beat Tripura 166/10 (S Mujumder 39, A Wakhare 3/29, A Karnewar 2/12) by 158 runs.
Vidrabha's top-order batsman, Ganesh Satish posted his highest List A score, 140* as he powered the team to a 324-run total against Tripura. He was involved in a 172-run stand for the second wicket with opener J Sharma, who also scored a century. It was the opener's maiden ton in List A cricket.
Akshay Wakhare who has been in good form this season then helped bundle Tripura out for 166. The off-spinner claimed three for 29 while A Karnewar and R Thakur picked two wickets each.
Andhra vs Odisha: Andhra 261/4 (AG Pradeep 102*, B Samantaray 2/43) beat Odisha 206/10 (A Sarangi 52, S Kumar 4/37) by 55 runs.
AG Pradeep set-up the match for Andhra with an unbeaten 102-run knock. Defending 261 runs Siva Kumar then helped bowl Odisha out for 206 with his maiden four-for in List A matches.
Baroda vs Maharashtra: Maha 176/9 (R Tripathi 46, B Bhatt 4/30, R Arothe 2/25) lost to Baroda 177/2 (A Waghmode 77*, D Hooda 58*, DJ Muthuswamy 1/30) by 8 wickets
With his maiden four-for in List A matches, Bhargav Bhatt helped restrict Maharashtra to 176 for nine. The left-arm spinner claimed the opposition skipper Kedar Jadhav, who had come into the match on back of two successive centuries for 25. Bhatt was on a hat-trick with wickets of Jadhav and Shrikant Mundhe but missed out on the landmark.
Aditya Waghmode (77*) and Deepak Hooda (58*) then took Baroda to the target with 63 balls to spare.
Follow the stars:
Yusuf Pathan did not bowl in the match against Maharashtra and scored 18 runs.
Irfan Pathan gave Baroda their first breakthrough with the wicket of Maharashtra opener V More.
Munaf Patel claimed one wicket for 31 runs in Baroda's match against Maharashtra.
Manish Pandey, who led Karnataka in the absence of Vinay Kumar scored one run.
MS Dhoni scored one run before being bowled by Nair and was later involved in a stumping and took a catch.
KL Rahul scored 42 runs off 84 balls as Karnataka strove to chase a respectable total against Jharkhand.
Jharkhand captain Varun Aaron claimed the sole wicket of Abhishek Reddy in the match against Karnataka.
Harbhajan Singh was wicketless in the match against Rajasthan.
Rajat Bhatia contributed 18* runs to Rajasthan's total.
Axar Patel picked one wicket against Haryana.
