The teenaged Yashasvi Jaiswal scored his second List-A century (122, 132b, 14x4, 3x6) as Mumbai whipped Kerala by eight wickets to keep alive its chances of progressing to the knockout stage of the Vijay Hazare Trophy. The defending champion now has 16 points from seven matches and will play Jharkhand in another must-win game on Wednesday. Kerala, with 12 points and a game left, is all but out of the competition.
At the Just Cricket Ground near here on Monday, Mumbai chased down the 200-run target with nearly 12 overs to spare, as wicket-keeper Aditya Tare (67, 88b, 5x4, 1x6) combined well with Jaiswal to put on 195 runs for the opening wicket.
The duo lived dangerously at the start, with a few shots top-edged and a couple close to being chopped on. But when the Kerala pacemen Sandeep Warrier and M.D. Nidheesh erred even slightly, they were punished.
Jaiswal began with a clipped boundary down the leg side off Nidheesh and followed it up with a fine square cut, before feasting on the combined 19 overs of spin by Akshay Chandran and Jalaj Saxena. He repeatedly despatched Akshay behind square and hoisted Saxena over the mid-wicket fence for two of his three sixes. One of these heaves got him to 99 from where he brought up his much-deserved ton with a single.
Subdued
Tare, meanwhile, was subdued yet steady. However, on the one occasion he exploded, he hit speedster K.M. Asif out of the attack. Kerala’s joint-highest wicket-taker (14 wkts) was held back by skipper Robin Uthappa and came in only as the third change bowler. But he could do nothing to stop the glut of runs, as Tare clubbed him over point twice in his second over. Asif would bowl only one more.
Kerala’s opening bat Vishnu Vinod chanced his arm towards the end and sent back Jaiswal, forcing him to hole out at deep mid-wicket. Four balls later he saw Tare play one onto his stumps. But the dismissals were merely academic.
Earlier in the morning, Kerala, after deciding to bat, suffered a middle-order collapse. Sanju Samson, who scored a record-breaking double century in the previous match against Goa, was bowled by Shardul Thakur for just 15. Uthappa scored 43, his highest this tournament, but found little support.
The former Karnataka batsman was brisk and seemed set for a big one when he confidently pulled Shams Mulani for a six in the 16th over. But the left-arm spinner trapped him in front three balls later to leave Kerala reeling at 82 for five. A 68-run partnership for the ninth wicket between Akshay and Nidheesh appeared to salvage things for Kerala but even this effort later proved grossly inadequate.
At the Alur grounds, Chhattisgarh outwitted Hyderabad by 24 runs in a rain-curtailed 23-overs-a-side affair to go second in the table (22 points). Hyderabad, now joint-third (18), will need favourable results elsewhere in order to sneak through.
