Vijay Hazare Trophy 2015, Day 1 Round-up: Yuvraj's knock in vain for Punjab, Ravi Ashwin sparkles for TN

Yuvraj made a valiant 93, but Mumbai cruised to victory by five wickets against Punjab.

As many as 12 matches were played on the opening day of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, India’s premier domestic 50-over championship, and stellar displays and great contests were seen from all around the country.

Yuvraj Singh starred with the bat, as he hit a-run-a-ball 93 for Punjab against Mumbai in a Group A game of the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Yuvraj’s knock was however not enough for Punjab as JG Bista’s 87 ball 92, combined with the lower order heroics of Abhishek Nayar and Shashank Singh, were enough for Mumbai to cruise to their target of 255 with 4.5 overs to spare.

Brief Scores: Punjab 254 (Yuvraj 93, Kulkarni 3/41) lost to Mumbai 255/5 (Bista 92, Kaul 3/58) by five wickets.

India’s best spinner at the moment, Ravichandran Ashwin, proved his prowess once again as he took 3 wickets thereby helping Tamil Nadu bowl out Assam for 210, before securing an easy win with 6 wickets in hand. Abhinav Mukund hit a brilliant hundred for Tamil Nadu as his team hunted down the target with more than 8 overs left.

Brief Scores: Assam 210 (Syed Mohammed 59, Ashwin 3/31) lost to Tamil Nadu(toss) 214/4 (Mukund 104, Krishna Das 1/21) by six wickets.

Sevices begun their Vijay Hazare Trophy campaign with an easy win over Rajasthan as Suraj Yadav, Rajat Paliwal and Diwesh Gurudev Pathania picked up two wickets each to bowl out Rajasthan for 167, in reply to Services’ score of 230/7 from their 50 overs.

Brief Scores: Services 230/7 (Yashpal 75, NB Singh 4/42) beat Team Rajasthan 167 (toss) (Yadav 52, Paliwal 2/10) by 63 runs.

In a Group B clash, Jharkhand defeated Jammu and Kashmir by 9 runs, after J&K failed to score 211, the target set by Jharkhand courtesy half-centuries by Ishan Jaggi and Kaushal Singh. Shahbaz Nadeem took three wickets for Jharkhand as Parvez Rasool and Shubham Khajuria hit 60 and 63 for J&K, but in vain.

Brief Scores: Jharkhand 210 (Jaggi 54,Waseem Raza 3/31) beat J&K (toss) 201 (Rasool 63, Nadeem 3/28) by 9 runs.

AR Pandey was the hero for Railways, as he hit a boundary off the last ball to hand over his team the win in a humdinger against Karnataka. Captain R Vinay Kumar did everything that he possibly could, as his half-century took the reigning Ranji Champions to 228/9, and his 4 wickets dug deep holes in the Railways line-up, but it wasn’t enough, as Mahesh Rawat and Karn Sharma hit quickfire fifties to guide their team closer to victory.

Brief Scores: Karnataka 228/9 (Vinay Kumar 50, Ashish Yadav 3/25) lost to Railways (toss) 232/9 (Karn Sharma 51, Vinay Kumar 4/45) by 1 wicket.

Haryana beat Kerala by 9 runs, as a spirited effort by the Kerala captain Sachin Baby went in vain. Batting first, Haryana scored 241/7 with half-centuries from NR Saini and MS Hooda. In reply, Kerala could only manage 232 in their 50 overs.

Brief Scores: Haryana 241/7 (MS Hooda 54, Warrier 2/35) beat Kerala(toss) 232 (Baby 95, JJ Yadav 3/21) by 9 runs.

In another cliffhanger, in Group C, Odisha beat Vidarbha by three runs, as RL Jangid’s fighting 92 went in vain, courtesy a five-wicket haul by Orissa’s Alok Sahoo. Vidarbha fell 4 runs short of their target of 227, as Jangid, after batting so well throughout the innings fell at the death off Biplab Samantaray, and was the last man to go.

Brief Scores: Odisha (toss) 226/9 (Arabind 62, Thakur 3/44) beat Vidarbha 223 (Jangid 97, Sahoo 5/39) by 3 runs.

AG Pradeep’s 71 and Siva Kumar’s 51 off just 26 balls guided Andhra to 273, before they bowled out Tripura for 215, with Stephen and Sudhakar taking 3 wickets each for Andhra.

Brief Scores: Andhra 273 (Pradeep 71, Majumder 2/45) beat Tripura (toss) 215 (Choudhury 52, Sudhakar 3/28) by 58 runs.

Delhi defeated Baroda by 31 runs in their opening clash of the tournament, as Nitish Rana’s 62 took them to 208 in their 50 overs, before Subodh Bhati’s 4 wickets combined with Pradeep Sangwan’s and Navdeep Saini’s two-a-piece, helped Delhi bowl out Baroda for 177.

Brief Scores: Delhi 208/7 (Rana 62, Arothe 2/30) beat Baroda (toss) 177 (Hooda 50, Bhati 4/17) by 31 runs.

An all-round performance by the Bengal batsmen took them to an easy six wicket win over Goa in their first clash of the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Shreevats Goswami, SS Mandal and Manoj Tiwary made half-centuries has Bengal cruised to their target of 236 with over 8 overs to spare.

Brief Scores: Goa 235/9 (Bandekar 62, Dinda 3/40) lost to Bengal (toss) 238/4 (Goswami 70, Misal 2/36) by six wickets.

Uttar Pradesh’s Eklavya Dwivedi hit a magnificent hundred to guide his team to victory over Himachal Pradesh in their opening game in Group D. Set 244 to win by HP, the UP batsmen never looked troubled as they reached the target with considerable ease, given that there were still 2.4 overs left to be bowled.

Brief Scores: HP 243/8 (Dhawan 67, Chawla 3/49) lost to UP (toss) 247/3 (Dwivedi 104, More 1/24) by 7 wickets.