Vijay Hazare Trophy: Punjab bounce back from defeats to beat Andhra; Baroda, Tamil Nadu win – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

Indore: Punjab bounced back from back-to-back defeats to beat Andhra by seven wickets in a Group B match to register their first win in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy on Wednesday.

Punjab skipper Mandeep Singh won the toss and sent Andhra in to bat and Siddarth Kaul (4/27) was bang on target from the word go. Kaul got Ashwin Hebbar, centurion in the previous match against Tamil Nadu, for 1 in the fourth over.

Kaul then struck a huge blow by getting the wicket of Andhra captain Hanuma Vihari (2).

A disciplined bowling effort from Punjab meant Andhra innings never had the momentum. Kaul picked up four wickets while left-arm medium-pacer Barinder Sran took three as Andhra were bowled out for 175 in the 49th over.

Chasing the target, Mandeep starred with an unbeaten 64 (81 balls, 8 fours) to take Punjab home in 36 overs and register their first win in the tournament.

In the second match of the group, Tamil Nadu, the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy winners, suffered their second defeat in the tournament after losing by 11 runs to Madhya Pradesh.

M Shahrukh Khan’s attacking knock of 67 not out (77 balls, 3X4s, 5X6s) could not carry Tamil Nadu past the line in pursuit of 226-run target against Madhya Pradesh.

Earlier, MP made 225 all out, thanks to captain Parth Sahani’s 46 and Aditya Shrivastava’s watchful 46.

In the third game of the group, Jharkhand beat Vidarbha by three wickets to top the standings with three wins from as many games.

Jharkhand scrambled home in the final over, thanks to Bal Krishna’s 11-ball 21 (2X4s, 1X6) to get over the line in the high-scoring match.

Chasing 289, Kumar Deobrat (100, 103 balls, 12X4s, 4X6) did the star turn for Jharkhand.

Baroda beat Hyderabad

Baroda continued their winning streak in the Vijay Hazare Trophy after beating Hyderabad by 110 runs in their Elite Group A match on Wednesday, courtesy Kedar Devdhar’s hundred and impressive show by the bowlers.

This is Baroda’s third win on the trot after they had defeated Goa and Tripura.

Put into bat at the Lalbhai Contractor Stadium, Baroda rode on Devdhar’s stroke-filled 131 to post a competitive 316/7 on the board, and then bundled out the opposition for 206, with Babashafi Pathan (3/37) doing the bulk of the damage.

Devdhar was back among the runs as he tore apart the Hyderabad attack with his 139-ball innings, hammering 14 boundaries and two maximums.

He and Smit Patel (35) added 79 runs for the first wicket. But Patel perished after being caught by B Sandeep off right-arm medium pacer Ajay Dev Goud (2/68).

In-form Vishnu Solanki (15) also fell cheaply as Baroda slipped to 107/2.

Then, Devdhar found an able ally in Krunal Pandya (55 off 50 balls; 7×4, 1×6) as the duo steadied the innings, adding 98 runs for the third wicket.

But Hyderabad pegged Baroda back as they removed Krunal and Ninad Rathwa (0) in quick succession to leave them at 210/4.

A composed Devdhar took the onus on himself even as Abhimanyu Singh Rajput (20) and Kartik Kakade (22) played their parts to perfection. An unbeaten 16 off 7 balls by Atit Sheth propelled Baroda past the 310-run mark.

For Hyderabad, Goud and left-arm pacer CV Milind (2/74) grabbed two wickets each.

Hyderabad could not capitalise on a 75-run strong start given by openers Tanmay Agarwal (34) and Tilak Verma (47) and suffered a middle-order collapse.

Both the openers perished in quick succession as Hyderabad slipped to 83/2.

Baroda rattled Hyderabad by striking twice, first Ninad Rathwa ran out Himalaya Agarwal (17) and Babashafi Pathan then sent back Mickil Jaiswal (5).

B Sandeep (18) and T Ravi Teja (19) weren’t able to convert their starts as Hyderabad found themselves reeling at 143/6. Hyderabad were eventually bundled out for 202.

Brief Scores:

Baroda 316/7 (Kedar Devdhar 131, Krunal Pandya 55; Ajay Dev Goud 2/68, CV Milind 2/74) beat Hyderabad 206 all out (Tilak Verma 47, Tanmay Agarwal 34; Babashafi Pathan 3/37, Lukman Meriwala 2/39) by 110 runs.

Gujarat 336/7 (Het Patel 114, Dhruv Raval 83; Rana Dutta 5/74, Manisankar Murasingh 1/68) beat Tripura 204 (Udiyan Bose 65, Hardik Patel 3/25, Ripal Patel 2/26) by 132 runs.

Goa 210 (Darshan Misal 56, Amit Verma 46; Veer Pratap Singh 4/29, Sumit Ruikar 2/24) lost to Chhattisgarh 213/2 (Rishabh Tiwari 91 not out, Harpreet Singh Bhatia 56; Amit Verma 2/34) by eight wickets.

Andhra 175 all out in 48.1 overs (Nitish Kumar Reddy 30; Siddarth Kaul 4/27, Barinder Sran 3/29) lost to Punjab 176 for 3 in 36 overs (Mandeep Singh 64 not out, Abhishek Sharma 32, Prabhsimran Singh 32) by seven wickets. Punjab: 4 points, Andhra: 0.

Vidarbha 288 for 9 in 50 overs (S R Ramaswamy 82, Akshay Wadkar 76, Aditya Sarwate 37; Vikash Singh 4/65) lost to Jharkhand 294 for 7 in 49.3 overs (Kumar Deobrat 100, Utkarsh Singh 49; S R Dubey 3/59) by three wickets. Jharkhand: 4 points, Vidarbha: 0.

Madhya Pradesh 225 all out in 48.2 overs (Aditya Shrivastava 46, Parth Sahani 46; M Mohammed 3/39) beat Tamil Nadu 211 all out in 49 overs (Shahrukh Khan 67 not out, Dinesh Karthik 37, B Indrajith 32) by 14 runs. MP: 4 points, TN: 0.