Buoyed by his India call-up, speedster Ashok Dinda continued his superb form in the domestic circuit as his five-wicket haul helped Bengal beat Madhyra Pradesh by 15 runs in the quarter-final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy being played at the Palam ground.
Opting to bat on a slow track at the Palam ground, Bengal made 230 for eight in 45 overs after the match started an hour late. In reply, MP were all-out for 215 in 44.3 overs with Dinda (5/54 in 9 overs) getting his maiden five-wicket haul in List A (domestic One-dayers).
In his first spell, he dealt a telling blow getting three quick wickets which included two of their most dangerous players in Naman Ojha and Jalaj Saxena.
In his fourth over, Dinda got Rameez Khan caught by Shukla and then the former Bengal captain came into the attack to induce an edge off Mohnish Mishra which was snapped by Goswami behind the stumps to reduce MP to 42 for four.
In the morning, it was Wriddhiman Saha (53, 52 balls, 6x4) who scored his fifth consecutive half-century, ODI specialist Manoj Tiwary (48, 63 balls, 3x4, 1x6) and Anustup Majumdar (55, 57 balls, 6x4, 1x6) helped Bengal reach a competitive score after opting to bat. Sourav Ganguly (8, 17 balls, 1x4) failed with the bat yet again.
Brief Scores: Bengal 230/8 (W Saha 53, A Majumdar 52, M Tiwary 48, TP Sudhindra 2/47) bt UP 215 in 44.3 overs (Anand Singh 53, A Dinda 5/54, LR Shukla 2/37).
Mumbai rout Karnataka by 9 wickets
Wasim Jaffer and Ajinkya Rahane hit fluent half-centuries as Mumbai advanced to the semifinals of the Vijay Hazare Trophy after spanking Karnataka by nine wickets at the Feroze Shah Kotla.
Electing to field after skipper Ajit Agarkar won the toss, Mumbai restricted Karnataka to 178 for nine in their stipulated 50 overs with Kshemal Waingankar taking three wickets for 19 and Ankeet Chavan two for 29.
Chasing a modest target of 179, Mumbai rode on Rahane's unbeaten 71 off 80 balls and Jaffer's 61-ball 68 to romp home in 29.1 overs. While Rahane's innings included nine hits to the fence, Jaffer's knock included 10 fours and two sixes.
Mumbai's India batsman Rohit Sharma did not get the opportunity to bat although he made his presence felt on the field with a sharp catch of Karnataka skipper Robin Uthappa and contributing in the run-out of Abhimanyu Mithun.
Karnataka suffered a stunning batting collapse on a two-paced wicket as half of the team was seen cooling heels inside 17 overs.
At one stage, it looked as if Karnataka would not be able to cross the 100-run mark with the scoreline reading 57 for six. The pace trio of Agarkar, Dhawal Kulkarni and Waingankar rattled Karnataka's top and middle-order batting line-up, which also included the wickets of Uthappa (30), Manish Pandey (0) and Stuart Binny (5).
