Vijay Hazare: Padikkal, Krunal Pandya shine with tons

A roundup of the Vijay Hazare Trophy one-day matches played on Friday.

Pandya hits century as Baroda continue winning streak

Skipper Krunal Pandya's unbeaten 133 formed the cornerstone of Baroda's 13-run win over Chhattisgarh in an Elite Group A game of the Vijay Hazare Trophy in Surat on Friday, even as Atit Sheth blazed away to a 16-ball 51.

Opting to bat, Baroda rode on Pandya's hundred and Sheth's big-hitting to post 332/6 after a top-order failure, and then restricted the opposition to 319/9 to record their fourth win on the trot.

Baroda lost openers Kedar Devdhar (12) and Smit Patel (13) cheaply and was teetering at 29/2. Medium pacer Sourabh Majumdar (2/85) accounted for both the wickets.   

It became 39/3 after Abhimanyusingh Rajput (5) perished cheaply but Vishnu Solanki (78 off 99 balls) and Pradeep Yadav (32) started the rescue act and added 53 runs for the fourth wicket.

After Yadav departed, in walked skipper Pandya, who was in his element and toyed with the Chhattisgarh attack.

The left-hander smashed 20 fours and three sixes in his whirlwind 100-ball knock while forging a 139-run stand for the fifth wicket with Solanki.

Chhattisgarh pegged Baroda back by taking two quick wickets, but Sheth, who walked in at number eight, smashed seven sixes while helping his team to a formidable total. Pandya and Sheth added 89 runs for the unbroken seventh wicket.

Chasing 333, Chhattisgarh lost opener Shashank Chandrakar (12) early. Medium pacer Babashafi Pathan (3/73) struck twice removing Rishab Tiwari (26) and Harpreet Singh Bhatia (14) as the batting side found itself in a spot of bother at 58/3.

But Amandeep Khare (67) and Ashutosh Singh (55) took the game deep with their 125-run fourth wicket stand.

However, skipper Krunal broke the partnership by removing Singh in the 35th over. And, in the next over, left-arm spinner Ninad Rathwa sent back Khare to leave them teetering at 185/5.

Shashank Singh (32) and Ajay Mandal (65 not out off 46 balls) added 48 runs as they inched towards the target, but the former was caught by Kartik Kakade off pacer Atit Sheth when they still needed another 100 runs.

Mandal gave Baroda a scare but their bowlers held their nerves to eke out a narrow win.

Brief Scores:

Baroda 332/6 (Krunal Pandya 133 not out; Vishnu Solanki 78; Shashank Singh 2/28, Sourabh Majumdar 2/85) beat Chhattisgarh 319/9 (Amandeep Khare 67, Ajay Mandal 65 not out; Babashafi Pathan 3/73, Atit Sheth 2/67) by 13 runs.

Tripura 216 (Milind Kumar 68; Lakshay Garg 5/42) lost to Goa 217/7 (KD Eknath 92, Darshan Misal 54 not out) by three wickets.

Gujarat 222/9 (Karan Patel 78, Het Patel 67; T Ravi Teja 4/45) beat Hyderabad 210 (Tanmay Agarwal 54, B Sandeep 54) by 12 runs.

TN end Jharkhand's winning streak

Tamil Nadu on Friday ended Jharkhand's three-match winning streak with a convincing 67-run win in a Group B match of the Vijay Hazare Trophy in Indore.

In other matches, Punjab chased down a target of 291 against Vidarbha for a four-wicket win, while Madhya Pradesh handed Andhra a 98-run defeat.

Jharkhand is on top of the standings with 12 points, followed by Punjab, Andhra, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh with eight points. Vidarbha lies in last place with 4 points.

After winning the toss, Tamil Nadu posted a competitive 266/7, thanks to half-centuries from opener B Aparajith (57), J Kousik (55) and Shahrukh Khan (51) and some lusty hitting by R Sai Kishore (29 not out) and M Mohammed (20).

Tamil Nadu appeared to have squandered a good start provided by Aparajith and N Jagadeesan (30) and were in a spot of bother at 131 for 5 in 34.4 overs.

However, Shahrukh (51 from 47 balls) and Kousik (55 from 40 balls) came to Tamil Nadu's rescue with a 50-run partnership for the sixth wicket. Kousik then added 55 runs with Sai Kishore for the seventh wicket.

A quickfire partnership between Sai Kishore and Mohammed, who smacked three sixes propelled Tamil Nadu to a competitive score.

In reply, Jharkhand suffered an early blow when skipper Ishan Kishan (0) was dismissed off the first ball of the innings by Aparajith.

Despite handy knocks by Virat Singh (49) and Sumit Kumar (40), Jharkhand lost wickets at regular intervals to slip to 145 for 9 as the TN bowlers kept a leash on the scoring.

No.11 Rahul Shukla (42 not out, 25 balls, 3X4, 3X6) and Varun Aaron (18 not out) delayed the inevitable and made sure the team wasn't all out.

At Holkar Cricket Stadium, Prabhsimran Singh hammered 167 (140 balls, 13 fours, 9 sixes) to power Punjab to a four-wicket win over Vidarbha.

Brief scores:

Tamil Nadu 266 for 7 in 50 overs (B Aparajith 57, J Kousik 55, Shahrukh Khan 51) beat Jharkhand 199 for 9 in 50 overs (Virat Singh 49, Rahul Shukla 42 not out) by 67 runs.

Vidarbha 290 for 9 in 50 overs (Faiz Fazal 101, Ganesh Satish 78, Akshay Wadkar 63 not out, Siddharth Kaul 4/54, Hapreet Brar 4/43) lost to Punjab 294 for 6 in 47.5 overs (Prabhsimran Singh 167) by 4 wickets.

Madhya Pradesh 316 for 8 in 50 overs (Rajat Patidar 102, Shubham Sharma 78) beat Andhra 218 all out in 42.3 overs (Nitish Kumar Reddy 59, Karan Shinde 47 not out, Mihir Hirwani 4/50) by 98 runs.

Padikkal cracks ton as Karnataka thrash Kerala

Young opener Devdutt Padikkal continued his sensational form, smashing a second successive century to lead defending champions Karnataka to a nine-wicket win over Kerala in the Vijay
Hazare Trophy in Bengaluru.

Chasing Kerala's 278, Karnataka cantered home with 27 balls to spare with the Royal Challengers Bangalore opener hitting 13 fours and two sixes in an unbeaten knock of 126 from 138 balls.

He got a fine support from Krishnamurthy Siddharth (84-ball 86 not out; 5x4, 3x6) as they toyed with the Kerala attack in their match-winning 180-run undefeated stand.

Fresh from his 152 against Odisha, Padikkal carried on from where he left and put on a 99-run opening stand with skipper Ravikumar Samarth (62).

The 20-year-old, who also has two half-centuries, now leads the Vijay Hazare run chart with 427 runs from four matches at an astounding average of 142.33.

The big win took Karnataka to the top of the Group E table ahead of Uttar Pradesh and Kerala on net run-rate.

Earlier, Abhimanyu Mithun (5/52) and Prasidh Krishna (2/65) shared seven wickets to restrict Kerala to 277 for eight after Karnataka opted to bowl at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Brief Scores:

At M Chinnaswamy Stadium: Kerala 277/8; 50 overs (Vathsal Govind 95, Mohammed Azharuddeen 59 not out; Abhimanyu Mithun 5/52) lost to Karnataka 279/1; 45.3 overs (Devdutt Padikkal 126 not out, Krishnamurthy Siddharth 86 not out) by 9 wickets.

At KSCA Cricket (3) Ground, Alur: Uttar Pradesh 346/6; 50 overs (Priyam Garg 115, Akshdeep Nath 93; Ananta Saha 3/66) beat Railways 276; 46.1 overs (Shivam Chaudhary 107, Saurabh Singh 51; Shivam Mavi 4/51) by 70 runs.

At KSCA Cricket (2) Ground, Alur: Bihar 255/7; 50 overs (Babul Kumar 78; Shantanu Mishra 3/46) lost to Odisha 258/3; 48.1 overs (Shantanu Mishra 76, Sandeep Pattnaik 64, Kartik Biswal 53 not out) by 7 wickets.