Pacers Anand Rajan and Ishwar Pandey shared six wickets between them as Madhya Pradesh registered a comfortable five-wicket win over Uttar Pradesh in their limited-overs Vijay Hazare Trophy Central Zone match, in Indore on Friday.
Electing to field, Madhya Pradesh restricted Uttar Pradesh to 205 for nine in their alloted 50 overs, and then chased down the target in just 39.5 overs.
Rajan picked up four for 51 while Ishwar returned with figures of two for 36. Jai Prakash Yadav and Anurag Singh snared up one wicket each for the hosts.
Madhya Pradesh's middle-order fired in unison as Jatin Saxena top-scored with a knock of 45 while skipper Udit Birla made 44.
Apart from the duo, Harpreet Singh played a quickfire unbeaten knock of 41 in 28 balls, laced with five fours and one six, while Rameez Khan contributed 36.
For the visitors, right-arm medium fast, Imitiaz Ahmed picked up four for 65 but did not find much support from the other bowlers.
Earlier, Uttar Pradesh relied on the experience of Mohammad Kaif (55) and skipper Suresh Raina (36) to cross the 200-run mark.
While Kaif struck three fours and a six in his 73-ball stay at the crease, Raina had six boundaries. The visitors struggled to score runs freely as their middle-order failed miserably against the pace of Rajan and Pandey.
Karnataka outclass Kerala
Karnataka rode on a solid batting performance to beat Kerela by 52 runs in a South Zone leg match of the Vijay Hazare Trophy One-Day Championship in Vasco da Gama.
Asked to bat, their top six batsmen contributed with the bat as Karnataka piled up a huge 322 for five in their alloted 50 overs.
Openers Lokesh Rahul (86) and Robin Uthappa (54) gave a solid start to Karnataka's innings, stitching 112 runs for the opening stand. One-down Manish Pandey also got a start with a 34-ball 25.
Captain Stuart Binny (60 off 55), Ganesh Satish (40 off 32) and Karun Nair (46 not out off 19) used their long handle to great effect towards the end to take Karnataka to the formidable total.
Kerala's run chase got off a disastrous start as they lost their first three wickets with just 32 runs on the board in 9.2 overs.
It took a 106-run fourth-wicket partnership between Robert Fernandez (55) and captain Sachin Baby (61) to stabilise Kerala's innings.
After Baby and Fernandez's dismissal, Raiphi Gomez (44), Karimuttathu Rakesh (41 not out) and Prasanth (21 not out) tried hard to keep Kerala in the hunt, but the asking rate turned out to be too tall and they eventually finished at 270 for six.
Medium pacer H S Sharath showed a lot of promise with the ball for Karnataka with figures of four for 40.
