Jharkhand medium pacer Rahul Shukla played a vital role with the bat (scoring 32 off 34 balls) and followed it up with a match-winning five-wicket haul to help his team book a place in the Vijay Hazare Trophy semi-final. Here are the highlights for the day:
SSCB vs Jharkhand: Rahul Shukla's contribution with the bat and ball helped Jharkhand to a 25-run win against Services at the Jadavpur University Complex in Kolkata.
Earlier, reduced to 35 for five by a rampaging Suraj Yadav (four-wickets), Jharkhand were left gasping for air by Services' new-ball wielding pace duo. But Kumar Deobrat came to the team's rescue and salvaged the innings with a gallant 99-ball 84-run knock. He was ably supported by Keshav Kumar in reviving the innings. The pair stemmed the fall of wickets and added 111 for the sixth wicket, before Keshav was castled by Shadab Nazar. Yadav accounted for four early wickets as SSCB bowled the opposition out for 214 in 48.2 overs. Shukla's unbeaten knock helped his team to a respectable total as wickets tumbled after Jharkhand were inserted to bat first.
After his effort with the bat, Shukla returned to deal early blows to the Services line-up. The pacer claimed three wickets, while his partner, Jaskaran Singh, took one to leave the opposition reeling on 23 for four in the sixth over. Shukla trapped Sumit Singh leg-before and castled Pratik Desai in the first over of the innings. AR Sinha, who was looking to rebuild the faltering innings with Yashpal Singh, was removed by Jaskaran 39 runs later. Yashpal, however, continued to rally on. But 46 runs later, his wicket was claimed by Ashish Yadav off his own bowling. With Yashpal's 81-ball 39 run knock coming to end, Suraj joined Soumya Swain in the middle. Facing the uphill task, Sawin battled on before being run out for 45. With the match precariously poised and SSCB on 143 for seven, Nazar made his way to the middle. But after adding six runs, he became Shukla's fourth scalp. Suraj was the next to depart, run out for 28 with 22 balls left and the team 34 short of the target. With eight balls remaining, Shukla removed AS Sakuja and bowled SSCB out for 189.
Punjab vs Railways: Railways made it to the semi-final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy with a comprehensive 137-run win over Punjab. Skipper Mahesh Rawat's century helped Railways post 242 on the board, before being bowled out with 13 balls still left in the innings. With a determined 58, Rongsen Jonathan helped the captain take the team past the 200-run mark, before being sent back by Gurinder Singh. While Rawat scored 108 off as many balls, the rest of the line-up, barring Jonathon, succumbed to the Siddarth Kaul-led attack. Kaul claimed five, while Sandeep Sharma and Manpreet Gony took two wickets each. Gurinder Singh chipped in with the key wicket of Jonathon to end the fifth-wicket partnership that set up the match for Railways.
The Railways pace attack, led by Anureet Singh, then hit the deck hard from the word go. Anureet and K Upadhyay claimed two wickets each, while Amit Mishra took one to rock the Punjab batting line-up. With the team struggling on 31 for four, Yuvraj Singh and Gurkeerat Singh came together, but both perished to run outs soon after. Ashish Yadav (three wickets) then wrapped up the tail to end the Punjab innings for 105 and left Taruwar Kohli stranded on 27.
