Group A:
Punjab vs Vidarbha at Delhi
Vidharba won the toss and chose to bat first. Opener Faiz Fazal was dismissed early but ex-Karnataka batsmen Ganesh Satish along with Ambati Rayudu added 60 runs for the third wickets. The former perished for 42 but Rayudu went on to make 85 runs at a steady rate and struck three sixes and six boundaries.
None of the other batsmen managed to cross the 11-run mark as Vidarbha were bundled out for just 218 and 2007 U19 World Cup winner Siddharth Kaul was the pick of the Punjab bowlers for taking 4 wickets for 33 runs in his quota of 10 overs.
In reply, Punjab were off to a blazing start courtesy Manan Vohra who was dismissed for 50 and Royal Challengers Bangalore player Mandeep Singh who went on to make 86 off 104 balls. After Vohra departed, Singh was accompanied by 16-year-old Abhishek Sharma who scored a boundary-filled 46 runs in just 37 balls. Amongst the Vidarbha bowlers, none of them managed to create an impression.
Brief Scores: Vidarbha 218/10 in 49.3 overs (Ambati Rayudu 86, Siddarth Kaul 33/4) lost to Punjab 219/4 in 41.1 overs (Mandeep Singh 86, Akshay Wakhare 41/1) by 6 wickets
Other Scores: Baroda 259/9 in 50 overs (Deepak Hooda 119, Anureet Singh 43/2) beat Railways 229/10 in 46.4 overs (Saurabh Wakaskar 58, Krunal Pandya 32/3) by 30 runs; Odisha 229/10 in 47.5 overs (Sandeep Pattnaik 91, Joginder Sharma 41/2) lost to Haryana 230/5 in 48.2 overs (Chaitanya Bishnoi 83, Basant Mohanty 35/1) by 5 wickets
Group B:
Delhi vs Tamil Nadu at Cuttack
19-year-old Delhi captain Rishabh Pant won the toss and put Tamil Nadu to bat first. Tamil Nadu were cruising at 76 for no loss before Manan Sharma’s triple blow reduced them to 103/3. Tamil Nadu skipper Dinesh Karthik, however, stepped up to the occasion and scored 118 off just 97 balls which included 13 fours and 3 sixes. Veteran Ashish Nehra stopped the lower order from scoring and restricted them to 314/8.
In reply, Gautam Gambhir and Dhruv Shorey reached fifties. However, they failed to get any support from the middle order. Milind Kumar who came out at no. 7 gave Delhi some hope of victory when he was joined by Pawan Negi who scored a run-a-ball 23. Medium-pacer Antony Dhas was the star of the show with the ball for TN as he wrapped up Delhi’s batting unit for 272 helping TN grab four points in the first game.
Brief Scores: Tamil Nadu 314/8 in 50 overs (Dinesh Karthik 118, Ashish Nehra 39/4) beat Delhi 272/10 in 46.4 overs (Milind Kumar 68, Antony Dhas 53/3) by 30 runs
Other Scores: Maharashtra 376/7 in 50 overs (Ruturaj Gaikwad 132, Pankaj Jaiswal 82/2) beat Himachal Pradesh 351 in 48.5 overs (Prashanth Chopra 100, Jagadish Zope 60/4) by 25 runs; Kerala 233/9 in 50 overs (Salman Nizar 82, Sachin Baby 77*, Abhijit Sarkar 43/3) lost to Tripura 235/8 in 49.2 overs (Gurinder Singh 61, Krishna Kumar 36/2) by 2 wickets
Group C:
Gujarat vs Mumbai at Chennai
It was a replay of this season’s Ranji Trophy final but it was a different ball game altogether. Parthiv Patel won the toss and elected to field first and seemed to be reaping early rewards for his decision.
Mumbai did not have a good start to their innings and were just 85 when they lost their fourth wicket. However, skipper Aditya Tare, who walked in at no. 6 ensured that the Mumbaikars were not getting dismissed for a paltry total. Tare and Siddhesh Lad scored 83 and 64 respectively to set 274 as the target for the Ranji champions.
The Gujarat batsmen never really settled in and kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Ranji Trophy’s top-scorer Priyank Panchal scored 32 runs and that remained the highest score in the Gujarat batting line-up. The curtain was brought down on their innings at only 175 with Shivam Malhotra taking 3 for 49 to lead Mumbai to a comfortable victory.
Brief Scores: Mumbai 273/9 in 50 overs (Aditya Tare 83, Chirag Parmar 42/4) beat Gujarat 175/10 in 41.4 overs (Priyank Panchal 32, Shivam Malhotra 49/3) by 98 runs
Other Scores: Andhra 255/8 in 50 overs (D.Ravi Teja 43, Pragyan Ojha 33/2) lost to Bengal 226/6 in 48.5 overs (Sreevats Goswami 66, Swaroop Kumar 43/2) by 4 wickets; Rajasthan 212/10 in 49.1 overs (Ashok Budania 38, Puneet Datey 25/3) lost to Madhya Pradesh 213/7 in 40 overs (Harpreet Singh 45, Puneet Yadav 10/2) by 3 wickets
Group D:
Karnataka vs Jharkhand at Kolkata
MS Dhoni won the toss and chose to field first for Jharkhand and got off to a rollicking start. Karnataka openers Robin Uthappa and Mayank Agarwal were back in the hut soon. But Manish Pandey (who plays his home games in the IPL at the Eden Gardens) along with Ravikumar Samarth added 116 runs for the third wicket.
However, Jharkhand roared back and managed to restrict them for just 266 runs. Pacer Rahul Shukla was the highlight of the Jharkhand innings with figures of 4 for 45 runs.
Chasing 267 to win, Jharkhand were pegged back to after losing two wickets for only three runs to 21-year-old Prasidh Krishna. Ishan Kishan and Ishank Jaggi stabilised the innings but departed after a while. Southpaw Saurabh Tiwary and MS Dhoni scored 68 and 43 respectively but their efforts went in vain as Jharkhand lost only by 5 runs. 2 Crore IPL buy Krishnappa Gowtham impressed with 4 wickets for 58 runs.
Brief Scores: 266/10 in 49.4 overs (Manish Pandey 77, Rahul Shukla 45/4) beat Jharkhand 261/10 in 49.5 overs (Saurabh Tiwary 68, K.Gowtham 58/4) by 5 runs
Other Scores: Services 263/9 in 50 overs (Nakul Sharma 124, Shaurya Sanandia 67/4) beat Saurashtra 215/10 in 39.5 overs (Prerak Mankad 58, Suraj Yadav 47/4) by 48 runs; Hyderabad 257/10 in 49.3 overs (Tanmay Agarwal 68, Ram Dayal 40/2) beat Jammu & Kashmir 228/10 in 42.4 overs (Ahmed Bandy 87, Ravi Kiran 49/3) by 29 runs.
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