Vijay Hazare Trophy: Padikkal ton seals quarters berth for Karnataka

Devdutt Padikkal continued his terrific form ahead of the IPL, hitting nine sixes and as many boundaries in his 145 not out from 125 balls.

Devdutt Padikkal's purple patch with bat continues unabated.

Karnataka (16 points), which emerged as the Group ‘C’ topper after recording a 10-wicket win over Railways, sealed a quarterfinal berth.

Kerala and Uttar Pradesh - both tied with Karnataka on points but behind on Net Run Rate - have a very good chance of qualifying. The final list of qualified teams will be clear after Group ‘D’ and Group ‘E’ matches conclude on Monday.

 

At the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, it was a dream outing for the Karnataka opening pair of Padikkal and Samarth. Padikkal recorded his third consecutive century, to go with scores of 52 and 97 in the first two matches. Newly-appointed captain Samarth brought up his second century of the tournament, to go with two fifties.

 

Kerala romps home

Kerala recorded a thumping nine-wicket victory over Bihar here on  Sunday to stay in the hunt for a Vijay Hazare Trophy quarterfinal

berth. At Alur (3) ground, Kerala chased Bihar’s 148 in only 8.5 overs. Robin Uthappa (87 n.o., 32b, 4x4, 10x6), Vishnu Vinod (37, 12b, 2x4, 4x6) and Sanju Samson (24 n.o., 9b, 2x4, 2x6) threw the kitchen sink at the hapless Bihar bowling.

 

After opting to bowl, Kerala ran through the Bihar line-up. Pacer S. Sreesanth picked up four wickets, while off-spinner Jalaj Saxena took three scalps.

At Just Cricket ground, Uttar Pradesh chased Odisha’s 148 in 21.4 overs to stay alive in the competition.

Brief Scores

At M.Chinnaswamy Stadium: Railways 284/9; 50 overs (Pratham Singh 129; Shreyas Gopal 3/41, J Suchith 2/72) lost to Karnataka 285 fo no loss; 40.3 overs (Devdutt Padikkal 145 not out, Ravikumar Samarth 130 not out) by 10 wickets.

At KSCA Cricket (3) Ground, Alur: Bihar 148 all out; 40.2 overs (Babul Kumar 64; Sreesanth 4/30, Jalaj Saxena 3/30) lost to Kerala 149/1; 8.5 overs (Robin Uthappa 87 not out, Sanju Samson 24 not out) by nine wickets.

At Just Cricket Academy Ground: Odisha 148 all out; 40.1 overs (Subhranshu Senapati 49 not out, Rakesh Pattnaik 46; Shivam Sharma 6/22) lost to Uttar Pradesh 150/4; 21.4 overs (Upendra Yadav 32, Sameer Choudhary 29 not out) by six wickets.