Vijay Hazare Trophy: Railways beat Baroda by 93 runs to enter quarters

Railways put up an all-round performance to down Baroda by 93 runs and set up a quarterfinal clash with Punjab in the Vijay Hazare Trophy one-day cricket tournament at the floodlit Eden Gardens today.

For Railways, who won the toss, Chanderpal Saini put up a fine show as the No 8 batsman’s unbeaten 45 from 60 balls, (4x4) in a 64-run partnership with Karn Sharma (41 from 36 balls; 2x4, 1x6), propelled his side to 230/9 after they were reduced to 126/6 in the 31st over.

Defending a modest total, Railways were given a fine start when pacer Anureet Singh’s wicket-maiden first over in which he dismissed Saurabh Wakaskar before Amit Mishra (3/22), Krishnakant Upadhyay (2/29) and Saini (2/13) bundled out Baroda for 137.

Saini also took a brilliant running catch at midwicket to dismiss opener Wakaskar who pulled one but only to find a top edge as the Railways allrounder took the skier.

Upadhyay gave Singh a fine support at the other end while Anureet was in the middle of a fine first spell that read 6-2-12-1.

The intent was missing from Baroda who put up a listless batting while there was no lack of steam from the Railways attack with second change bowler Amit Mishra keeping up the tempo with his accurate medium pace.

Mishra took two wickets in successive overs including the prized scalp of Ambati Rayudu for two.

The India middle order batsman who looked impressive in the Asia Cup disappointed for Baroda as he gave a simple catching practice to Arindam Ghosh at slip as Baroda were struggling at 45/4 in 14.3 overs.

The biggest disappointment, however, came from the Pathan brothers as Yusuf, who had a 66 and 100 in previous two matches, was dismissed for 19 by leg-spinner Karn Sharma while Irfan was bowled by Upadhyay for 38 as Baroda never looked in the game.

Earlier, Baroda left-arm spinner Vishwanath Parmar returned figures of 4 for 50 to peg Railways at 82/4 but sensible Saini and aggressive Sharma’s lusty blows meant they score 36 runs from last five overs to push their total.

Brief Scores

Railways: 230/9; 50 overs (Chanderpal Saini 45 not out, Amit Paunikar 42; Vishwanath Parmar 4/50, Munaf Patel 2/27, Lukman Meriwala 2/52) beat Baroda: 137; 43.3 overs (Irfan Pathan 38; Amit Mishra 3/22) by 93 runs.

PTI