Vijay Hazare Trophy 2018: Mumbai fall short in massive run chase; Punjab lose to Railways

Manan Vohra's 143 went in vain as Punjab were beaten by Railways, chasing 281 at Bengaluru. Dismissed off the last ball of the innings, opener Vohra held together the Punjab innings after multiple starts across the scorecard were thrown away with the next highest being captain Yuvraj Singh's 35. Vohra hit 13 fours and 2 sixes as regular wickets from one end checked Punjab's flow, who ended on 280/8.

Railways were in trouble with the top three gone inside the fifteenth over, but Arindam Ghosh and captain Mahesh Rawat joined hands to steady their ship with a stand of 134, though the run rate remained a concern. Rawat made 56 while Ankit Yadav's rapid knock of 55 from 30 balls in a partnership of 76 in less than seven overs with Ghosh all but sealed the game for Railways.

Railways needed 20 off the last over that was being bowled by Indian pacer Barinder Sran. The first three balls were a six, wide and a wicket. The game was still evenly poised with 11 to get from 4 balls but Anureet Singh got the job done with a four and a six along with three wides as they got home with two balls to spare.

Railways 283/6 in 49.4 overs (A Ghosh 89*, Rawat 56; Markande 2/35) beat Punjab 280/8 in 50 overs (Vohra 143, Yuvraj 35; A Yadav 2/44) by 4 wickets

In another match, Andhra piled on 344/5, but won by only 29 runs as Mumbai fought with intent to finish on 315/9. Opener Srikar Bharat and captain Hanuma Vihari's huge partnership of 254 finally ended when the latter was trapped for 169 – off merely 118 balls – after smashing 16 fours and 7 sixes.

Bharat was not far behind with a patient 105 from 126 deliveries, which included 10 fours. After he departed with score well over 300 already, it was the turn of number of four Ricky Bhui to hammer the Mumbai bowling. Bhui whacked 53 off 31 balls, as all five Andhra wickets were shared between Royston Dias (3/77) and Dhrumil Matkar (2/60).

Mumbai began calmly, but soon lost wickets in a cluster: Karthik Raman removed both openers following good starts – Prithvi Shaw was the aggressor with 31 at over a run a ball – and captain Aditya Tare, Suryakumar Yadav and Shams Mulani departed early, the latter two run out by Naren Reddy.

But amidst all this, number three Sidddesh Lad was sill present and finally found a partner in Shivam Dubey for company. The pair added 72 in quick time before Dubey left Lad alone; still, Lad kept Mumbai in the hunt by continuing to accumulate runs at a good pace. Once he was out for 118 off 98 deliveries with 6 fours and 4 sixes, the lower-order folded soon to eventually fall short of the target.

Andhra 344/5 in 50 overs (Vihari 169, Bharat 105; Dias 3/77) beat Mumbai 315/9 in 50 overs (Lad 118; Raman 3/55, S Ashish 2/51) by 29 runs

Brief Scores:

Group C

Goa 228/9 in 48.3 overs (Kamat 110*; Chawla 3/27, K Patel 3/42) beat Gujarat 227 in 49.4 overs (Merai 93; Misal 3/36, Desai 2/28) by 1 wicket

Tamil Nadu 143/3 in 23.3 overs (Aparajith 55*, Jagadeesan 39; Lamba 1/13) beat Rajasthan 141 in 38.2 overs (Bist 36; Kishore 5/26, Kousik 2/12) by 7 wickets

Group A

Haryana 323/9 in 50 overs (Paliwal 76, Rohilla 74; Dutta 5/67) beat Assam 237/6 in 50 overs (R Sharma 97*, S Roy 40; H Patel 3/51) by 86 runs

Baroda 317/6 in 50 overs (K Pandya 84, Swapnil 56; Raul 2/70) beat Odisha 260 in 46.4 overs (Samantray 74, Prayash 51; A Sheth 2/19) by 57 runs

Group D

Hyderabad 280/8 in 50 overs (B Sandeep 79, Rayudu 46; P Rao 3/52) beat Chattisgarh 196 in 44.3 overs (Khare 71; Siraj 5/37, Hassan 2/28) by 84 runs

Jharkhand 296/9 in 50 overs (Virat 96; Rasool 3/46, Nazir 3/71) beat Jammu & Kashmir 199 in 46 overs (Oundir 74; Ashish 3/23, Vikash 3/37) by 97 runs

Saurashtra 161/2 in 34 overs (Barot 91*, Pujara 46*; Gurbani 1/24) beat Vidarbha 159 in 40.5 overs (J Sharma 55; Makvana 2/9, Unadkat 2/18) by 8 wickets