NEW DELHI: As anticipated, Punjab, Baroda and Haryana made winning starts to their campaigns for the two qualifying berths from Group A in the league phase of the Vijay Hazare Trophy here on Saturday.
After Vidarbha found itself restricted to 218 despite Ambati Rayudu’s 86, Punjab cruised to a comfortable six-wicket victory with opener Mandeep Singh showing the way with an unbeaten 86.
The match never really rose as a contest after the Vidarbha top-order failed to cash in on good starts. Only Rayudu kept the hopes alive with some good strokeplay, but later joined the procession.
A 91-run start for Punjab, with Manan Vohra contributing a half-century, ensured that the team was always ahead.
Haryana bounces back
At the Karnail Singh Stadium, Haryana bounced back strongly to beat Odisha by five wickets. This outcome could not be imagined when Odisha, opting to bat, was 157 for no loss with Sandeep Pattnaik (91) and Anurag Sarangi going great guns.
But in a dramatic collapse spread over 14 overs, Odisha lost 10 wickets for the addition of only 72 runs.
That left Haryana chasing 230, which it achieved following an unbroken 97-run sixth-wicket stand by Chaitanya Bishnoi (83 not out) and Rahul Tewatia (62 not out).
Hooda hits century
Meanwhile, at the Air Force ground, Palam, Baroda’s trio of Krunal Pandya, Irfan Pathan and Hardik Pandya denied Railways a successful chase of 259.
Baroda owed its total to Deepak Hooda’s 119 and opener Kedar Devdhar’s 77.
The scores:
At Ferozeshah Kotla ground: Vidarbha 218 in 49.3 overs (Ambati Rayudu 86, Ganesh Satish 42, Jitesh Sharma 33, Siddharth Kaul four for 33) lost to Punjab 219 for four in 41.1 overs (Mandeep Singh 86 n.o., Manan Vohra 50, Abhishek Sharma 46 n.o.).
Toss: Vidarbha; Points: Punjab 4 ; Vidarbha .
Air Force ground, Palam: Baroda 259 for nine in 50 overs (Deepak Hooda 119, Kedar Devdhar 77) bt Railways 229 in 46.4 overs (Saurabh Wakaskar 58, Asadulla Khan 34, Shivakant Shukla 33, Krunal Pandya three for 32). Toss: Railways; Baroda 4 ; Railways .
Karnail Singh Stadium: Odisha 229 in 47.5 overs (Sandeep Pattanaik 91, Anurag Sarangi 77) lost to Haryana 230 for five in 48.2 overs (Chaitanya Bishnoi 83 n.o., Rahul Tewatia 62 n.o., Himanshu Rana 32).
Toss: Odisha; Haryana 4 ; Odisha .
Sunday’s fixtures: Punjab v Assam (Ferozeshah Kotla); Baroda v Vidarbha (Karnail Singh Stadium); Haryana v Railways (Air Force ground), 9 am.
