Hazare Trophy: Assam stun MP to enter quarters

Minnows Assam stunned Madhya Pradesh by four wickets to enter the quarter-finals of the National One Day Championship for Vijay Hazare Trophy in Visakhapatnam.

Opting to bat at the Port Stadium, Madhya Pradesh were all-out for 210 in 48.4 overs with Mumbai Indians seamer Abu Nechim Ahmed grabbing five for 32. In reply, Assam scored the required runs in 45.5 overs riding on No 3 batsman Shib Shankar Roy's career-best unbeaten knock of 97.

Assam will now take on heavyweights and last year's runners-up Mumbai in the quarter-final scheduled on Thursday.

It was Abu Nechim's second spell that started the collapse with MP losing their last six wickets for only 24 runs after being comfortably placed at 186 for four.

For the losing side, India discard Naman Ojha (72) and Udit Birla (74) added 105 runs for the third wicket and the only other score in excess of 20 came from Rameez Khan who made 27.

In reply, Shib Shankar anchored the chase to perfection facing 110 balls hitting eight fours and a six in the process.

He had two crucial partnerships of 55 and 57 for the fourth and sixth wickets with Tarjinder Singh (28) and Rajdeep Das (27) respectively.

Brief Scores:
MP 210 in 48.4 overs (Naman Ojha 72, Udit Birla 74, Abu Nechim Ahmed 5/32)
Assam 211/6 (Shib Shankar Roy 97 no, Tarjinder Singh 28, Iswar Pandey 2/36).

Rahul's ton takes Karnataka into quarters
Visakhapatnam: Opener Lokesh Rahul struck an unbeaten century as Karntaka comfortably beat Uttar Pradesh by seven wickets to enter the quarter-finals of Vijay Hazare Trophy.

Put into bat, UP managed only 194 in 45.2 overs with seamer HS Sharath taking three wickets and left-arm spinner KP Appanna chipping in with two wickets.

Karnataka reached the target in 32 overs with opener Rahul hitting an unbeaten 104 off 152 balls with six fours and three sixes. He added 119 runs for the third wicket with veteran Ganesh Satish (53).

Karnataka will take on defending champions Bengal in the quarter-final slated on Thursday.

For UP, their reputed players like skipper Suresh Raina (13), veteran Mohammed Kaif (37), U-19 World Cup winner Akshdeep Nath (29) all got starts but couldn't convert it into big scores losing wickets at regular intervals.

Brief Scores:
UP 194 all out in 45.2 overs (Mohd Kaif 37, HS Sharath 3/46, KP Appanna 2/42).
Karnataka 197/3 in 32 overs (Lokesh Rahul 104 no, G Satish 53).