North Zone
New Delhi, Feb 20
Punjab v Haryana
Thanks to an unbeaten 76 by Amitoze Singh, Punjab chased down 244 runs against Haryana with four wickets to spare. Haryana’s skipper and opening batsmen Nitin Saini scored a solid 77 after electing to bat first. Manpreet Singh Gony (two for 40) returned best bowling figures for Punjab. Harbhajan Singh remained wicketless, conceding 46 runs in eight overs.
Himachal Pradesh v SSCB
Paras Dogra slammed a stroke-filled 114 off 126 balls as Himachal Pradesh beat Services by 19 runs. Electing to bat first, HP put up a total of 291 for seven. Services skipper Yashpal Singh (108) fought hard with a century but couldn’t take his team through. HP’s Nishan Singh was the most successful bowler of the match with figures of three for 33.
Delhi v Jammu & Kashmir
Parvinder Awana (three for 23) and Rajat Bhatia (three for 17) rocked the J&K boat to secure a 125-run win for Delhi. Batting first, Delhi were dismissed for 245 in 49.4 overs as Samiullah Beigh (three for 52) ended as J&K’s most successful bowler.
South Zone
Bangalore, Feb 20
Kerala v Hyderabad
A century from Akshath Reddy (110 not out) saw Hyderabad chase down 267 runs against Kerala in 48.3 overs for the loss of eight wickets. Kerala’s Rohan Prem ended on the losing side despite scoring a century in the first innings after the team elected to bat first.
Andhra Pradesh v Tamil Nadu
After skipper Lakshmipathy Balaji (five for 37) helped dismiss Andhra for 247, Anirudh Srikkanth (94) and Dinesh Karthik (105*) sealed the deal for them by five wickets. Put in to bat, Andhra managed 247 (all-out) in 46.4 overs mainly due to the efforts of Prasanth Kumar (73). However, the total proved too small for the strong Tamil Nadu batting line-up.
Goa v Karnataka
Ronit More (six for 18) annihilated the Goa batting line-up for 54 as Karnataka cruised to an eight-wicket win with 225 balls to spare. The 20-year-old pacer wrecked havoc during his spell of 6.3 overs as the Goa batsmen fell like dominoes; his senior pace bowling partner Abhimanyu Mithun supported him with two wickets. Reagan Pinto top-scored for Goa with 19 runs and was the only batsmen to reach double figures. Karnataka wiped off the total in 12.3 overs for the loss of two wickets.
East Zone
Kolkata, Feb 20
Tripura v Assam
Assam beat Tripura by eight wickets in a low-scoring encounter at the Jadavpur University Complex stadium. Having won the toss, Assam dismissed the Tripura side for 180 in 48.3 overs. Arup Das was the pick of them all with three for 31. Half-centuries from openers Dheeraj Jadhav (75) and Pallavkumar Das (52*) sealed an easy win for Assam in 38 overs.
Orissa v Bengal
Orissa failed to capitalise on the toss as they collapsed for 210 in 49.3 overs to hand a seven-wicket victory to Bengal. Natraj Behera’s 46 was the only significant contribution in Assam’s innings. Iresh Saxena (three for 20) and Ashoke Dinda (two for 43) did most of the damage for Bengal with the ball before Anustup Majumdar (100*) and Wriddhiman Saha (85*) sealed the win in 34.4 overs.
Central Zone
Nagpur, Feb 20
Uttar Pradesh v Railways
Uttar Pradesh pacers, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (four for 28) and RP Singh (three for 32) did a fantastic job of defending a modest 186 posted by their batsmen after winning the toss. Despite a gritty knock of 70 by Faiz Fazal, Railways made a mess of the easy chase as five of their first six batsmen were dismissed for single digits. UP’s innings was stabilised by half-centuries from Mohammad Kaif (56) and Amir Khan (50).
Vidarbha v Rajasthan
Ranji Trophy champions Rajasthan continued the momentum in the shorter format, defeating Vidarbha by three wickets at the VCA Stadium in Jamtha. Urvesh Patel’s 70 went in vain as Vidarbha were dismissed for 206 in 46.5 overs. A fifty from Dishant Yagnik and cameos from the remaining batsmen ensured Rajasthan got to the target in 49.1 overs, despite losing seven wickets in the process.
