Aniket Choudhary and Kamlesh Nagarkoti captured three wickets apiece as Rajasthan registered an important 52-run win over Delhi in an Elite Group-B match of the Vijay Trophy one-day tournament at the Eden Gardens here on Tuesday.
Asked to bat, Rajasthan stuttered to post a modest 218. Its pacers’ collective performance thwarted a Shivank Vashisht-led late surge and bundled Delhi out for 166 for the team’s second victory.
In the absence of Shikhar Dhawan, who left to lead the Indian ODI team in New Zealand, and Nitish Rana, who was unwell, Delhi was captained by Himmat Singh.
Rajasthan, after losing two wickets early, recovered slightly due to a 66-run partnership between Abhijeet Tomar (33, 49b, 5x4) and Mahipal Lomror (35, 48b, 3x4, 2x6).
Even as pacer Mayank Yadav and spinner Lalit Yadav tasted success, Rajasthan captain Ashok Menaria (31, 52b, 4x4) played a patient knock.
Young left-hander Kunal Rathore (70, 75b, 7x4, 4x6), who pulled well to clear the ropes, grittily added 43 runs with Deepak Chahar for the seventh wicket and 40 with Aniket for the 10 th to uplift Rajasthan.
Delhi began dismally as the Rajasthan speedsters chose good areas and got some movement.
After left-armer Aniket, who benefitted from his unusual angle, earned two wickets and Deepak Chahar got one, Nagarkoti bowled with nice rhythm to have Lalit and Anuj Rawat in his first spell and Ayush Badoni in his second.
Opener Dhruv Shorey (41, 68b, 5x4), who calmly held one end, edged one behind off a rising Aniket delivery from round the wicket as Delhi reeled at 91 for seven.
Southpaw Shivank (51, 60b, 7x4), who took two wickets, and Navdeep Saini (22, 55b, 1x4, 1x6) soaked up the pressure and formed a 62-run stand until Deepak ended their resistance.
At the Jadavpur University ground, the Karnataka pace battery wreaked havoc to wrap up the Jharkhand innings for 107 runs. Captain Mayank Agarwal (53, 63b, 7x4, 1x6) scored a half-century to script a convincing six-wicket win for Karnataka, which recorded its third win.
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