Vijay Hazare Trophy | Mumbai win comfortably against Baroda as Saurashtra defeat Uttar Pradesh

Elite Group A

Brief scores: Baroda 238/10 in 49.5 overs (Krunal Pandya 85, Yusuf Pathan 40, Dhawal Kulkarni 4/39, Vijay Gohil 2/20) lost to Mumbai 239/1 from 41.3 (Prithvi Shaw 98, Ajinkya Rahane 79, Krunal Pandya 1/34, Lukman Meriwala 0/22)

Maharashtra got off to a winning start in the 2018-19 season of this year’s limited-over format as they beat Goa by five wickets on Wednesday. Brilliant performances from Maharashtra’s Jay Pande and Ruturaj Gaikwad ensured that they work their way to win in their opening encounter against Amogh Desai’s Goa. Desai scored 65 with the bat and bagged two wickets too, but could not prevent his side from going down on day one of the tournament.

Brief scores: Goa 266/7 from 50 overs (Amogh Desai 65, Amit Verma 38, Samad Fallah 2/42) lost by five wickets to Maharashtra (Jay Pande 117, Ruturaj Gaikwad 67, Amogh Desai 2/39, Krishna Das 1/46)

Some outstanding batting from KKR recruit Shubman Gill, who scored a stunning century, and veteran Yuvraj Singh made sure that Punjab scored a total of 290/7 after 50 overs. Despite a strong partnership at the top of the order from Prashant Chopra and Ankush Bains, the northerners fell short by 35 runs. India international, Siddarth Kaul, who picked four for 55, was the pick of the bowlers on the day.

Brief scores: Himachal Pradesh 255/10 from  (Prashant Chopra 95, Ankush Bains 56, Siddarth Kaul 4/55, Arshdeep Singh 2/51) lost by 35 runs to Punjab 290 from 50 overs (Shubman Gill 115, Yuvraj Singh 48, Rishi Dhawan 3/50, Pankaj Jaiswal 1/53)

Kerala vs Andhra Pradesh

Kerala slumped to disappointing seven-run defeat in what turned out to be a low-scoring affair against Andhra Pradesh at the Palam stadium in Delhi. Andhra Pradesh had set Kerala a meagre target of 191 after a late flurry of runs from Bodapati Sumanth. But Sachin Baby-led Kerala were bowled out for 183 in the last over of the game, after MI’s Karn Sharma and Ricky Bhui excelled with the ball.

Madhya Pradesh vs Hyderabad

A good team effort from Madhya Pradesh gave them a total of 231 on the board after 50 overs, courtesy of a hard-fought 49 from Rajat Patidar and all-rounder Saransh Jain’s 45. But that wasn’t enough to restrict Hyderabad’s strong batting line-up as they chased down the target with two overs to spare. Opener - Tanmay Agarwal and Rohit Rayudu guided their side to a commendable seven-wicket victory in their season opener.

Uttar Pradesh vs Saurashtra

Sheldon Jackson and Robin Uthappa put up an opening stand of 194 runs to make sure that Jaydev Shah’s team reach a mammoth total of 303 runs at the end of their 50 overs. Despite an uphill battle, Uttar Pradesh gave their all as they narrowly fell short of the target by 25 runs after being bowled out for 278. One of the positives for the losing team was that youngster, Shivam Mavi, bagged a five-wicket haul in the first innings.

Elite Group C

Assam vs Gujarat

Haryana vs Jharkhand 

In yet another rain-abandoned game, Haryana and Jharkhand had to split points as rain played spoilsport at Sri Ramachandra Medical College in Chennai.

Although rain affected the match at MA Chidambaram Stadium, the Services side still managed to get four points to their name as they defeated Tripura by seven wickets by VJD method in their first game of the tournament. Tripura batted first and were bowled out for 118 in 38.4 overs giving an easy target to chase down for the Services. Diwesh Gurudev Pathania starred with ball for Services as he took three wickets. Services had to chase down only 108 which they achieved quite comfortably in 25.3 overs. RK Singh (48) was the top scorer for them in the run-chase.

Brief Scores: Tripura 118 in 38.4 overs (BB Ghosh 21; DG Pathania 3-28, Abhishek 2-15) lost to Services 104/3 in 25.2 overs (RK Singh 48) by 7 wickets as per VJD method

Puducherry vs Manipur

Puducherry were off to a great start in their first ever game in Indian domestic cricket as they defeated Manipur by eight wickets. Sagar P Udeshi and Sagar Trivedi claimed seven wickets among them to restrict Manipur to only 120 in 37.1 overs. Opener Lakhan Arjun Rawat and experienced allrounder Yashpal Singh scored 29 each but no one else could contribute anything substantial. Sashank Singh led the run-chase with a well-made 63 as the South Indian side chased down the total in 25.3 overs with eight wickets. 

Bihar vs Nagaland 

Keshav Kumar’s all-round show and Babur Kumar’s hundred helped comeback team Bihar win its first game by eight wickets against North Eastern side Nagaland. Batting first, Nagaland managed to score 253/8 in 50 overs. Opening batsman Nitesh was the top-scorer with 79 while there weredecent contribution from the middle-order that took them to a respectable score. Samar Quadri scalped three wickets for Bihar while Keshav and Rehan Khan claimed two each. Bihar didn’t have much difficulty in chasing down the total as Babur struck his first-class ton and Keshav remained unbeaten for 76. They added 130 runs for the uneaten third wicket to see their team chase down the target without any issues.

Arunachal Pradesh vs Mizoram

In the North Eastern derby, Arunachal Pradesh registered its first ever win in Vijay Hazare Trophy as they beat Mizoram by four wickets, thanks to the hundred by Samarth Seth (107). Kshitiz Sharma also batted sensibly in the middle overs and scored 61 as Arunachal chased down the target of 235 in 47 overs by losing six wickets. Earlier in the day, Taruwar Kohli scored 127 to take Mizoram to a respectable total of 234/8 in 50 overs after the Arunachal bowlers put up a combined show to take wickets at regular intervals. Apart from Kohli, only Akhil R and Sinan showed some resistance from the Mizo batting unit.