Rajasthan shock for fancied Mumbai

Rajasthan pulled off a six-wicket win over formidable Mumbai with opener Amit Gautam slamming an unbeaten 149 in the Vijay Hazare Trophy Group 'C' League here on Friday.

Gautam did the star turn for Rajasthan after its rival had posted 268/8 riding on Siddhesh Lad's second century in the tournament. The Rajasthan opener's knock was embellished with 16 boundaries and four sixes.

For Mumbai, Lad, who stroked an exact 100 (8x4, 4x6) and Prithvi Shaw 52 (7x4), were the main scorers.

Rajasthan's Syed Khaleel Ahmed bottled things up bagging four wickets for 35 runs in the match played at at TI Murugappa cricket ground.  

In another match, a blistering 158 off 111 balls by Rajat Patidar powered Madhya Pradesh to a comprehensive eight-wicket win over defending champion Tamil Nadu. The home side's third straight loss effectively ended their hopes in the tournament.

Faced with a rather daunting target of 303, Madhya Pradesh went on the attack from the start as openers Patidar and Naman Ojha unleashed an array of shots.

Patidar and Ojha added 65 runs before the latter fell to Aswin Crist for 39 (5X4, 1X6).

This brought together Patidar and Rameez Khan, who took the game away from the hosts with a massive 209-run partnership in 243 balls.

Patidar was in control right through his knock and hit 20 fours and four sixes as he peppered the Pachaiyappa's College ground with shots all around the wicket.

India Test star Ravichandran Ashwin, who had bowled with control throughout the tournament and tried his hand at leg-spin too, could not do anything to break the partnership or stem the flow of runs.

He finished with figures of none for 64 in 10 overs.

Tamil Nadu captain Vijay Shankar tried seven bowlers but the MP batsmen played confidently to coast to victory with four overs remaining.

Earlier, Tamil Nadu recovered after losing Ganga Sridhar Raju (0) in the third over and Kaushik Gandhi (7) in the seventh over with wicketkeeper-batsman N Jagadeesan (99) stringing together a 107-run stand in 120 balls with B Aparajith (43).

Jagadeesan was unlucky to miss out on his ton as he fell caught behind (by Ojha) to Puneet Dubey.

Vijay Shankar was his usual aggressive self and ran   hard between the wickets and compiled a stylish 84 (62 balls, 7x4, 2x6) but his exit triggered a collapse.

The team slid from 284 for 5 to end at 302 for 8 with the last five overs yielding just 20 runs.

Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh posted a narrow one-wicket win over Goa at the M A Chidambaram stadium to draw level on 12 points with Mumbai at the top.

Brief scores (Group D): Tamil Nadu: 302/9 in 50 overs (N Jagadeesan 99, B Aparajith 43, Vijay Shankar 84, B Anirudh Sitaram 39; Ankit Singh Kushwah 3-59) lt to Madhya Pradesh: 303/2 in 46 overs (Naman Ojha 39, Rajat Patidar 158, Rameez Khan 78 n.o.). Madhya Pradesh: 4 points; Tamil Nadu: 0 point.

Goa: 188 all out in 47.4 overs (Sugun Kamat 28, Snehal Kauthankar 43, Suyash Prabhudessai 38; P Girinath Reddy 4-32) lt to Andhra: 191/9 in 49.3 overs (K S Bharat 30, Ricky Bhui 56 n.o.; Lakshay Garg 3-32, Vijesh Prabhudesai 3-43). Andhra: 4, Goa: 0.

Mumbai: 268/8 in 50 overs (Prithvi Shaw 52, Siddhesh Lad 100; Syed Khaleel Ahmed 4-35)  lt to Team Rajasthan: 272/4 in 47.3 overs (Amit Gautam 149 n.o., Mahipal Lomror 81; Shivam Dube 2-36). Team Rajasthan: 4; Mumbai: 0.