With his second successive century in the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2015-16, Kedar Jadhav guided Maharashtra to a comfortable win over Andhra. Naman Ojha too led Madhya Pradesh to victory with a sparkling ton against Uttar Pradesh as the one-day tournament approaches the half-way stage of the league phase.
Defending champions Karnataka have kept themselves in the race with a win against Gujarat by VJD method. While M Mohammed’s maiden five-for in List A helped Tamil Nadu to victory, Team Rajasthan’s T M ul Haq was instrumental in the team’s win with a maiden four-for in List A.
Here are the highlights of the fourth day:
Group A
Team Rajasthan vs Hyderabad: Team Rajasthan 250/8 (A Menaria 55, MN Singh 51, R Kiran 4/57) beat Hyderabad 148/10 (GH Vihari 39, TM ul Haq 4/44, NB Singh 2/14) by 102 runs
Defending 250 runs, Rajasthan pacer, T M ul Haq helped skittle Hyderabad out for 148 with his maiden List A four-wicket haul. Besides the left-arm pacer, NB Singh claimed two and Pankaj Singh, Ashok Menaria and Rajat Bhatia claimed a wicket each to bowl the team to a 102-run win.
Earlier half-centuries by Menaria (55) and MN Singh (51) helped Rajasthan to a respectable total. Opening the innings for the team, Dishant Yagnik made 34 while P Yadav contributed 47 runs to the Rajasthan total.
Assam vs Punjab: Punjab 327/4 (M Singh 117*, P Singh 69, G Mann 62) beat Assam 326/8 (S Purkayastha 125, A Verma 71, G Sharma 60) by 1 run
Punjab posted a thrilling one-run win against Assam in a closely fought match in Hyderabad. After Mandeep Singh powered the team to 327 with an unbeaten 117-run knock, the Siddarth Kaul-led managed to win the match that went the distance by a slender margin.
The pacer, who has been in good form this season claimed three wickets, while Deepak Bansal picked two.
Assam opener Sarupam Purkayastha's 125 went in vain as the team lost the game by a whisker.
Services vs Tamil Nadu: Services 192/8 (Y Singh 56*, M Mohammed 5/50, R Ashwin 2/23) lost to TN 193/3 (A Mukund 85, B Aparajith 66*, D Pathania 3/41) by 7 wickets.
TN pacer, M Mohammed helped restrict Services to 192 for eight with a maiden five-wicket haul in List A matches. TN captain Ravichandran Ashwin, who got the team their first breakthrough with the wicket of Nakul Verma also claimed Suraj Yadav later. While the team strove to set TN a competitive target, Yashpal Singh remained unbeaten on 56.
Abhinav Mukund (85) then ensured TN a thumping with Baba Aprajith not out on 66. Diwesh Pathania claimed all the three wickets that TN lost as they chased down the total.
Group B
Haryana vs Jharkhand: Haryana 133/10 (R Dagar 38, R Shukla 3/33, S Nadeem 2/17) lost 134/1 (I Jaggi 62*, K Deobrat 38*, H Patel 1/38) by 9 wickets
Skipper Varun Aaron set the ball rolling with the wicket of both Haryana openers to leave them reeling at 37 for two. While pacer Rahul Shukla troubled the middle order, he was complemented by Shahbaz Nadeem (2/17), Monu Kumar and Ankit Dabas who picked a wicket each. The Jharkhand attack skittled Haryana out for 133 to set the game up in their favour.
Ishank Jaggi then chased the small target down with an unbeaten 62. He was ably supported by Kumar Deobrat (38*) as they attained the 134-run target in 29.4 overs.
Gujarat vs Karnataka: Karnataka 233/8 (M Pandey 94*, M Agarwal 58, M Patel 2/24, A Patel 2/33) beat Gujarat 189 (P Panchal 52, C Gandhi 43, J Suchith 2/25, V Kumar 2/28, S Gopal 2/33) by 15 runs under the VJD method.
After being reduced to 46 for two, Karnataka were propelled to 233 for eight by Manish Pandey. Even as he remained not out, the stylish middle-order batsman missed out on a century by six runs as the team completed their quota of overs.
The Vinay Kumar-led attack then held Gujarat to 189 for eight in 44 overs until they were declared winners via the VJD method. The Karnataka captain, J Suchith and S Gopal claimed two wickets each while A Mithun and Pravin Dubey picked a wicket each.
Kerala vs J & K: J & K 130/10 (B Singh 31, F Ahmed 3/24, P Padmanabhan 2/22, N Nizar 2/30) lost to Kerala 134/4 (N Surendran 85*, P Rasool 3/33) by 7 wickets
Kerala cantered to a seven-wicket win after bowling J & K out for 130. After Sachin Baby elected to field, S Warrier claimed Shubham Khajuria while Asif Rasool was run out. With both the openers back without opening their accounts, J & K were on the back-foot from the word go.
Niyas Nizar (2/30) dealt the third blow with the team on 37 while left-arm spinner P Padmanabhan (2/22) and off-spinner Fabid Ahmed (3/24) accounted for the rest of the lineup to end the J & K innings.
Nikhilesh Surendran, who had effected two run outs, chased down the total with an unbeaten 85-run knock. His 90-ball effort comprised 12 boundaries and one six.
Group C
Odisha vs Baroda: Baroda 225/10 (A Waghmode 111, Ankit Yadav 4/44) beat Odisha 169/10 (N Behera 67*, B Bhatt 2/16, Munaf Patel 2/31, H Pandya 2/47) by 56 runs.
Aditya Waghmode set the match up for Baroda with a 143-ball 111-run knock against Odisha. While Ankit Yadav's maiden four-wicket haul in List A matches kept the rest of the lineup in check, the opener anchored the innings before departing with two balls remaining in the innings.
The Munaf Patel-led attack then bowled Baroda to a 56-run win. The pacer claimed two wickets and so did Hardik Pandya and left-arm spinner Bhargav Bhatt in the winning cause.
Maharashtra vs Andhra: Maha 214/8 (Kedar Jadhav 101, A Bawane 100, S Kumar 3/24) beat Andhra 194/10 (S Koripalli 74, S Kazi 4/36, A Darekar 2/33) by 47 runs
Andhra pacer Siva Kumar had left Maharashtra reeling at 17 for four after Kedar Jadhav elected to bat. A Bandaru claimed S Gugale in the sixth over while Siva claimed three. He accounted for Harshad Khadiwale and R Triptahi off successive deliveries but missed out on a hat-trick.
However, he finished with three wickets in a maiden over. But, Ankit Bawane (100) and the Maharashtra captain (101) ensured the team a competitive score with centuries. Their partnership for the fourth wicket was worth 194 runs until Jadhav was sent back by B Sudhakar.
Off-spinner S Kazi (4/36) and left-arm spinner Akshay Darekar 92/33) then spun Maharashta to victory.
Delhi vs Tripura: Tripura 100/10 (P Singh 20, P Suyal 3/14, P Negi 2/2, M Sharma 2/24) lost to Delhi 101/2 (N Rana 67*, R Datta 2/21) by 8 wickets
Delhi outplayed Tripura at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium to wrap-up the game with ease. The Gautam Gambhir-led team bundled Tripura out for 100 after electing to bowl. Pacers Navdeep Saini (2/28) and Pawan Suyal (3/14) claimed the top five Tripura batsmen while Subodh Bhati chipped in with a wicket. Spinners Manan Sharma and Pawan Negi then ran through the lower-order to bowl Tripura out with 63 balls left in the innings.
Delhi then lost Dhruv Shorey and Unmukt Chand to Rana Datta. But, Nitish Rana took Delhi to the target in 16 overs with an unbeaten 67 off 48 balls.
Group D
Uttar Pradesh vs Madhya Pradesh: UP 211/10 (A Nath 67, U Sharma 50, P Datey 2/33, J Saxena 2/33, Ishwar Pandey 2/43) lost to MP 212/2 (N Ojha 114*, H S Bhatia 63*) by 8 wickets
MP pacer Puneet Datey dismissed Suresh Raina for one after the UP captain came out to open the innings. The MP attack led by Ishwar Pandey claimed wickets at regular intervals not allowing for partnerships to form. However, middle-order batsman Akshdeep Nath rallied on to make 67 and was the last man to get out having taken the team to 211 runs.
Jalaj Saxena, Datey, Pandey and Chandrakant Sakure claimed two wickets each.
Naman Ojha then guided the team to a comprehensive win with a 122-ball 114*-run knock. The wicketkeeper batsman's seventh List A century comprised of 13 boundaries and two sixes. The MP captain partnered with Harpreet Singh Bhatia (63*) to take the team across the line with 65 balls to spare.
Saurashtra vs Himachal Pradesh: Saurashtra 195/10 ( C Pujara 73, R More 3/44, Rishi Dhawan 3/46) lost to HP 197/3 (A Bains 76, R Bist 45, K Makwana 2/26) by 7 wickets.
The Himachal pacers bowled Saurashtra out for 195 after Jaydev Shah elected to bat. Rishi Dhawan and Ronit More claimed three wickets each while P Jaswal took two to put the team in a commanding position. While the rest of the batsmen returned for low scores, Cheteshwar Pujara put up a resistance with 113-ball 73 and was the top-scorer for Saurashtra.
The Himachal top-order then helped scale the total comfortably. Ankush Bains made 76 while Robin Bist contributed 46 runs to the winning cause.
Follow the stars:
In the low-scoring match between Jharkhand and Haryana, MS Dhoni did not get the opportunity to bat.
Delhi captain Gautam Gambhir didn’t bat as the team chased down the paltry target against Tripura in 16 overs.
Stand-in J & K captain Parvez Rasool claimed three wickets even as they lost to Kerala by a huge margin.
Sanju Samson lost his stumps to Parvez Rasool for four.
Praveen Kumar was wicketless in UP's match against MP.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar castled Jalaj Saxena for naught even as UP lost the match to MP.
Piyush Chawla claimed the sole wicket of MP opener Rajat Patidar and earlier in the game scored four runs.
Ravindra Jadeja made nine runs before being sent back by Rishi and was wicketless in the match against HP.
Yusuf Pathan was run out for three runs and went wicketless in Baroda's match against Odisha.
Baroda captain Ambati Rayudu scored three runs against Odisha.
Leading the team in absence of Parthiv Patel, Axar Patel picked two wickets for 33 runs and scored 27 for Gujarat even as they lost to Karnataka.
KL Rahul was sent back for eight runs against Gujarat.
Karnataka all-rounder Stuart Binny scored 24 runs and bowled two overs for 14 runs against Gujarat.
Harbhajan Singh claimed the wicket of Amit Verma in the match against Assam and scored a single.
Yuvraj Singh scored 36 off 39 balls with four sixes and bowled five over for 27 runs in Punjab's game against Assam.
