Chhattisgarh shocks Mumbai in high-scoring thriller

Despite contributions from Tare (90), Shreyas Iyer (50) and Suryakumar Yadav (81), Mumbai failed to contain the minnows in the Vijay Hazare Trophy fixture.

Chhattisgarh batsman Amandeep Khare showed his mettle and made a gritty 117 off just 94 balls.

 

Defending champion Mumbai was in for a shock as minnows Chhattisgarh defeated them by five wickets in a high-scoring thriller in the Vijay Hazare trophy here on Saturday.

At the Alur Cricket Stadium III, put into bat, Mumbai posted a descent 317/5 in its allotted 50 overs, but Chhattisgarh chased the target with one ball to spare and rode on a gritty 117 not out by middle-order batsman Amandeep Khare.

Put into bat, Mumbai’s experienced opener Aditya Tare slammed 90 off 107 balls and remained the top-scorer.

After Jay Bista (24) was dismissed cheaply, Tare got support from young prodigy Yashasvi Jaiswal (44) as the two rebuilt the innings. Skipper Shreyas Iyer too chipped in with a 46-ball 50.

As it happened| Vijay Hazare Trophy 2019-20, Saturday matches

And when Iyer departed, Mumbai was comfortably poised at 4-238 in 45 overs.

But the ever-reliable Surya Kumar Yadav had some different plans as he hammered 8 fours and six sixes in his quick fire 81 off 31 balls and took Chhattisgarh bowlers to task. It was due to Surya’s blistering knock that Mumbai went past the 300-run mark.

Chhattisgarh did not have a good start with opener Shashank Chandrakar (5) falling early. Jiwanjyot Singh (44) and one-down Ashutosh Singh (35) tried to rally the innings.

But Jiwanjyot was trapped by spinner Shams Mulani as Chhattisgarh was 82-2 and then Ashutosh also fell when the score was 95.

However, Amandeep showed his mettle and made a gritty 117 off just 94 balls, with 8 fours and 4 sixes to his credit.

He first got support from Shashank Singh (40) and then shared an unbeaten 96-run stand with Ajay Mandal (39 not out) as the two took the side home.

For Mumbai, Shams Mulani (3-33) was successful, but others, including experienced pacer Dhawal Kulkarni (1-66), had a bad day in office.

At the M Chinnaswamy Stadium here, Karnataka defeated Kerala by 60 runs, with K.L. Rahul slamming a hundred. He took the opposition bowlers to task as he hit a stroke-filled 131 off 122 balls.

He hit 10 fours and four sixes and remained the top- scorer for his team.

Skipper Manish Pandey also chipped in with 50 off 51 balls, but then Kerala bowlers were successful in restricting them to 294.

Karnataka bowlers put a spirited show despite a fighting hundred by Kerala opener Vishnu Vinod (104) to bowl them out for 234 and register a win.

Meanwhile, in another Elite Group A match, Hyderabad defeated Saurashtra by 121 runs at the Alur Cricket Stadium 2.

Brief Scores (in and around): Mumbai 317/5 (Aditya Tare 90, Surya Kumar Yadav 81, Shreyas Iyer 50; Shashank Singh 2-54) lost to Chhattisgarh 318/5 (Amadeep Khare 117 not out, Jiwanjyot Singh 44, Shams Mulani 3-33) by 5 wickets Mumbai 0 points, Chhattisgarh 4 points. Hyderabad 252/5 (Tanmay Agarwal 79, Tilak Verma 65; Jaydev Unadkat 2-46) beat Saurashtra 131 (Sheldon Jackson 39, Chirag Jani 23, B Sandeep 5-26) by 121 runs. Hyderabad 4 points, Saurashtra 0 points. Karnataka 294 all out (K L Rahul 131, Manish Pandey 50; Asif K M 3-59) beat Kerala 234 all out (Vishnu Vinod 104, Sanju Samson 67; Ronit More 3-42) by 60 runs. Karnataka 4 points, Kerala 0 points.