Vidarbha snap Maharashtra’s winning streak with dramatic maiden win

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Akhil Herwadkar registered his highest score en route helping Mumbai maintain their unbeaten run in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy via a comfortable 7-wicket win against Goa. With this victory, they maintain their top spot on the points table.

The win was set-up by the bowling unit that had bundled out Goa for a below-par 186 after they elected to bat. Royston Dias's twin blows early on, Shams Mulani's tidy spell in the middle overs and Dhawal Kulkarni's triple strike and a run out didn't allow Goa to get an upperhand in the contest. Barring Amit Verma and Keenan Vaz's 61-run stand there was no worthwhile alliance. Suyash Prabhudessai played a lone hand in the lower order with a quickfire 52.

Mumbai had little difficulty going through the chase. Openers Jay Bista and Herwadkar stitched a half-century partnership before Krishna Das struck back with two quick blows. However, Herwadkar finally made good of the opportunity in Prithvi Shaw's absence and stroked his second List A ton, crunching 4 sixes and 11 fours in his 112-ball 108.

@B2$: @B3$ 186 in 49.5 overs (Suyash Prabhudessai 52, Amit Verma 49; Dhawal Kulkarni 3-32, Shams Mulani 2-31) l@B4$ 189/3 in 35.3 overs (Akhil Herwadkar 108*, Jay Bista 32; Krishna Das 2-31, Amulya Pandrekar 1-51) @B5$ @B6$

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Despite Saurabh Wakaskar's century, Railways lost their sixth consecutive game on a trot, trounced by 58 runs (VJD Method) by Punjab.

Electing to bat, Punjab asserted early dominance through contrasting half-centuries from Shubhman Gill (39-ball) and Yuvraj Singh (121-ball 96). However, it was Gurkeerat Singh's century which powered the team to 284 for 6. His 144-run stand with Yuvraj formed the base of Punjab's innings. Chandrakant Sakure bagged three wickets but conceded 85 runs.

Chasing a revised target of 269, Railways were always catching up after losing Karan Sharma in the third over. They failed to stitch partnerships even as Wakaskar held his end strong. Siddharth Kaul and Arshdeep Singh did the early damage with a brace each, while Mayank Markande ran through the lower order with a three-fer to bundle them out for 210.

@B8$ 286/4 in 50 over (Gurkeerat Singh 101, Yuvraj Singh 96; Chandrakant Sakure 3-85, Madhur Khatri 1-26) @B9$ 210 in 44.3 overs (Saurabh Wakaskar 104, Manish Rao 30; Mayank Markande 3-40, Arshdeep Singh 2-39) @B10$

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In a dramatic turn of events, Akshay Wadkar and Darshan Nalkande helped Vidarbha register their maiden win of the season with a final-over finish. When the seventh wicket fell, Vidarbha were left needing 83 runs from 57 balls with only three wickets in hand in a 206-run chase. However, the eighth wicket pair's unbeaten 53-ball 83 helped end Maharashtra's unbeaten run.

Earlier in the day, Maharashtra put up another below-par show with the bat, with Ankeet Bawne again holding the fortunes of their batting. After the openers had provided a stable start with a half-century stand, Bawne clutched the innings together with a 62 to guide the team to 205 for 8.

Vidarbha looked in trouble right from the start in the chase with Samad Fallah's double burst reducing them to 29 for 4, and soon to 48 for 5. Akshay Wadkar, however, steadied the innings from thereon with a couple of handy partnerships. However, once they were reduced to 123 for 7 and a steep required rate, it was Nalkande who took the charge. He hammered five sixes in his 30-ball 53 and turned the game around. Despite the defeat, Maharashtra remain well placed at No 2 on the points table.

@B12$ @B13$ 205/8 in 50 overs (Ankeet Bawne 62, Ruturaj Gaikwad 32; Sanjay Ramaswamy 2-20, Darshan Nalkande 2-26) @B14$ 206/7 in 49.4 overs (Akshay Wadkar 82*, Darshan Nalkande 53*; Samad Fallah 2-33, Anupam Sanklecha 1-33)@B15$ @B16$

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Middle-order batsman Himmat Singh scored a sizzling 75-ball 102 while Unmukt Chand and Nitish Rana added half-centuries as Delhi ended Andhra's unbeaten run in 2018 Vijay Hazare Trophy with a 73-run win, thereby throwing the quarterfinal qualifications into a tizzy. Tuesday's results mean Delhi, Andhra and Hyderabad are locked together with 18 points in Group B. Five top teams from Group A & B together will make the cut and given Mumbai & Maharashtra's dominance in Group A, every missed opportunity could double losses.

Andhra's decision to field on the day backfired as Gautam Gambhir and Unmukt Chand added 75 for the first wicket. Nitish Rana carried the baton expertly through the middle with a run-a-ball 52 allowing for a final flourish from Himmat, who slammed four sixes and nine fours. Delhi's total of 314/5 was eventually too much even for an in-form Andhra side, who folded for 241 with just Prashanth Kumar going past 54.

@B19$314/5 in 50 overs (Himmat Singh 102*, Unmukt Chand 62; Girinath Reddy 2-67)@B20$41 in 49.5 overs (Prashanth Kumar 54, Ricky Bhui 48; Pawan Negi 2-41, Kulwant Khejroliya 2-29, Nitish Rana 2-9)@B21$

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Hyderabad stayed in contention for a quarterfinal berth with a convincing seven-wicket victory over Kerala at the Palam A stadium in Delhi. Hyderabad's bowlers kept Kerala down to 189/6 from 50 dreary overs before an unbeaten half-century from Rohit Rayudu and almost-equitable contributions from Akshath Reddy, Ashish Reddy and Bavanka Sandeep helped comfortably chase down the target with a little over three overs to spare.

Kerala, who elected to bat, seemed stuck in second gear for all of their innings with only some lower middle-order contributions even getting them a score close to 200. Vasudevan Jagadeesh made 62 off 92 while Vishnu Vinod provided some late pyrotechnics with a 22-ball unbeaten 34. Saaketh Sriram and Ravi Kiran claimed two wickets apiece at miserly economy rates.

@B23$189/6 in 50 overs (Vasudevan Jagadeesh 62, Vishnu Vinod 34*; Saaketh Sairam 2-27)@B24$190/3 in 46.4 overs (K Rohit Rayudu 57*, B Sandeep 48*; Jalaj Saxena 2-22)@B25$

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Pankaj Rao and Shivendra Singh claimed three wickets apiece as Chhattisgarh snapped a three-match losing streak with a 48-run victory over Odisha. Chhattisgarh's bowlers atoned for a rather middling performance from their batters which left them having to defend just 212. Barring a 57-run partnership between Rajesh Dhuper and Biplab Samantaray – both of them made 38 – Odisha were guilty of not stitching any partnership of significance as they crashed and burned on their way to folding in the 41st over for 164.

Chhattisgarh, who'd won their first two games before losing three on the bounce, didn't have the greatest of times with the bat themselves but were grateful for a 28-ball 38 from Shakeeb Ahmed at No.9. Harpreet Singh and Ashutosh Singh scored 43 and 38 respectively while Anurag Sarangi claimed 3 for 26 for Odisha.

@B27$212 in 49.5 overs (Harpreet Singh 43, Shakeeb Ahmed 38; Anurag Sarangi 3-26) @B28$164 in 41 overs (Biplab Samantaray 38; Pankaj Rao 3-15, Shivendra Singh 3-31)@B29$

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Sikkim's season slipped from bad to worse as they lost their sixth successive game this season, the latest of which came against Puducherry, who romped home by nine wickets with 228 balls to spare. It was another forgettable outing for Sikkim, who chose to bat, only to implode in magnificent proportions, with only two batsmen crossing the 15-run mark.

Puducherry's offspinner Fabid Ahmed bagged a fifer and choked the opposition with his nagging lines and lengths. He ended up with figures of 5-8 in 9.2 overs, and was well backed by his fellow left-arm spinner Narayanan who claimed a three-fer to roll Sikkim inside 44 overs for a scanty total of 89. A walk-in-the-park chase unfolded subsequently with Puducherry losing just one wicket to leap to third spot on the points table.

@B31$ 89 in 43.2 overs (Bijay Subba 17; Fabid Ahmed 5-8, Narayanan 3-21) lost to@B32$92/1 in 15.2 overs (D Rohit 38; Binod Gupta 1-11) @B33$

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Taruwar Kohli's career-best figures (6-65) proved to be the only shining light in an otherwise mediocre outing for Mizoram, as Uttarakhand recorded their fifth successive win in the tournament to seal their biggest win of the season at the Moti Bagh Stadium in Vadodara.

Mizoram's decision to bowl first certainly backfired, which was made more apparent through Karnaveer's knock who blazed an 86-ball 117 to set the ball rolling for Uttarakhand from the outset. A mammoth total of 321 never looked in reach for Mizoram with wickets tumbling at regular intervals, and to exacerbate matters, only two of their top six batters registered double-figures, eventually losing the game by a whopping 152-run margin.

@B34$ @B35$ 321 in 50 overs (Karnaveer 118, Saurabh Rawat 61; Taruwar Kohli 6-65) beat@B36$169 in 48.4 overs (Sinan Abdul Khadir 73; Vaibhav Bhatt 3-28) @B37$

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A 101-run partnership between KB Pawan and Hokaito Zhimomi in pursuit of 272, sealed the deal for Nagaland as they clinched their fourth win of the season and in the process handed Arunachal Pradesh their third consecutive loss.

Nagaland, after winning the toss, inserted the opposition and removed both their openers inside five openers to exert pressure on the rest of the batters. But a 70-run stand, followed by a 158-run stand for the third and fourth wicket respectively helped Arunachal Pradesh regain momentum and post a challenging total on the board. Kshitiz Sharma and Akhilesh Sahani both starred with centuries, but couldn't quite up the ante as well as they would have liked.

Nagaland, who started better than their opponents, scripted a well-organised chase and cruised home with six overs to spare. Arunachal's opening bowler Sandeep Thakur removed Nagaland's top three and was firmly,the best bowler on show.

@B38$ 271/4 in 50 overs (Khitiz Sharma 109, Akhilesh Sahani 102*; Arun 2-56) lost to @B39$272/4 in 44 overs (KB Pawan 112, Hokaito Zhimomi 72*; Sandeep Thakur 3-52) @B40$