Vijay Hazare Trophy: 1st day round-up - Gambhir and Pathan brothers shine; Sehwag flops again

Uthappa hit a fine 50 to give Karnataka a win

South Zone

For the Ranji champions Karnataka, it was an easy day at the office. Andhra Pradesh were dismissed for a meagre total of 97 after the Karnataka bowlers made the most of skipper Vinay Kumar’s decision to bowl first. After losing the first 4 wickets for 14 runs, Robin Uthappa hit a fine 54 and guided Karnataka to a win in the 24th over.

Tamil Nadu cruised to a 7-wicket win over Goa, who were dismissed for 122 after a superb bowling performance from the Tamil nadu pacers. M Vijay hit an unbeaten 66 and helped TN achieve the target in the 34th over for the loss of three wickets.

Kerala were steamrolled by Hyderabad, who dismissed them to a total of 107. Pragyan Ojha (4 for 15) and Amol Shinde – with his 2 wickets – forced Kerala’s collapse. Alfred Absolem, also, scalped two wickets. Hyderabad opener T Suman scored an unbeaten 61 and, in the company of Dwaraka Ravi Teja, guided his team to a win in 30 overs.

North Zone

A fine opening stand between Gautam Gambhir (58) and Unmukt Chand (42) guided Delhi to a win over Jammu and Kashmir. Virender Sehwag continued his poor run of form, scoring only 15 runs. After setting a target of 257, S Narwal’s 2 for 32, V Tokas’s 2 for 28 and M Kumar’s 2 for 7 dismissed the J&K batsmen for a total of 218.

Joginder Sharma’s five-wicket haul helped Haryana register a victory over Punjab by seven runs. Chasing a total of 154 in a 32-overs per side match, Punjab’s top order was dismissed cheaply, courtesy of a superb bowling performance by Joginder. A 52-run stand between Gurinder Singh and Manpreet Gony went in vain.

Himachal Pradesh lost to Services by 11 runs. Services, who chose to bat, were buoyed by opener Devender Lochab’s 73, which propelled the team to 233 for 9. Himachal Pradesh, in reply, were all out for 222 despite the heroics from Bipul Sharma (44) and Sunmeet Verma (60).West Zone

A solid opening partnership between SP Wakaskar (63) and KH Devdhar (148) propelled Baroda to victory over Mumbai by 44 runs. Yusuf Pathan hit a 53 not out for Baroda. Contributions from Mumbai opener SH Marathe (77) and AM Nayar (65) went in vain. Irfan Pathan took three wickets, including 2 in an over.

Central Zone

In a game reduced to 20 overs per side, wicket-keeper Eklavya Dwivedi’s unbeaten 57 helped Uttar Pradesh to a 22-run victory over Railways. Prashant Gupta and Piyush Chawla set up important stands with Dwivedi. In response, Railways were unable to gain any momentum due to loss of wickets at regular intervals. Ashish Yadav was the top scorer with 42. UP pacer Amit Mishra’s 3 for 25 played a crucial role in restricting Railways to 114.