An imperious batting display fetched Jharkhand its third consecutive win and handed Tamil Nadu a crushing nine-wicket defeat in the Vijay Hazare Elite Group A match at the Narendra Modi Stadium here on Wednesday.
Openers Utkarsh Singh (123 not out, 120b, 12×4, 3×6) and Shikhar Mohan (90, 108b, 9×4) scripted the win with their 201-run partnership as Jharkhand effortlessly chased a target of 244 with four overs to spare. The match was reduced to 45 overs due to wet outfield and dew.
Medium pacer Shubham Kumar exploited the favourable conditions to dismiss the in-form N. Jagadeesan (0) who feathered a catch to wicketkeeper Kumar Kushagra.
Opener S.R. Athish swung three sixes in his rapid knock of 33 but got out against run of play. The trend continued as Pradosh Ranjan Paul (49, 64b 8×4) and B. Indrajith (48, 61b, 2×4) after struggling against the accurate attack got out playing rash strokes at the wrong time.
Tamil Nadu lost wickets regularly in the death overs and the final assault never came from the designated hard hitters. Jharkhand medium pacers Rajan Deep (one for 35), Shubham Kumar (four for 53) and Sushant Mishra (two for 51) mixed it up well as Tamil Nadu was bowled out for 243.
The pitch eased out in the second innings and Tamil Nadu’s hopes of an early breakthrough went up in smoke in the second over. Mohammed Ali, running in from third man failed to latch on to miscued pull from Shikhar Mohan off Govinth Ganesh. The batter, who was on three then, made Tamil Nadu pay dearly for the mistake as he along with Utkarsh Singh put the Tamil Nadu attack to sword with rasping cuts, pulls and flowing drives. Utkarsh Singh reached his century but Shikhar Mohan (90) missed the landmark as he was out top edging a sweep off Pradosh.
Eden Apple Tom smashed an 18-ball unbeaten 40 (1×4, 5×6) as Kerala pulled off a heist against Rajasthan. Chasing a stiff target of 344, Kerala needed 19 from the final over bowled by Akash Singh. Eden nailed the win with his third six of the over as Kerala won by two wickets.
Earlier, B. Aparajith’s century (126, 116b 12×4, 4×6) kept Kerala in the hunt after Rajasthan posted 343 for seven largely through Karan Lamba’s unbeaten 119 (131b, 6×4, 4×6).
The scores:
Tamil Nadu 243 in 45 overs (Pradosh Ranjan Paul 49, B. Indrajith 48, Shubham Kumar 4/53) lost to Jharkhand 244/1 in 41 overs (Utkarsh Singh 123 not out, Shikhar Mohan 90).
Rajasthan 343/7 in 50 overs (Karan Lamba 119 not out, Deepak Hooda 86) lost to Kerala 348/8 in 50 overs (B. Aparajith 126, Krishna Prasad 53, Eden Apple Tom 40 no).
Karnataka 363/4 in 50 overs (Mayank Agarwal 132, Devdutt Padikkal 113, Karun Nair 62 not out) bt Pondicherry 296 in 50 overs (Neyan Kangayan 68, Jayant Yadav 54).
Tripura 286/7 in 50 overs (Vijay Shankar 91, Sridam Paul 52, Venkatesh Iyer 4/44) lost to Madhya Pradesh 287/6 in 44 overs (Yash Dubey 105, Shubham Sharma 71).
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