File photo – Mayank Agarwal led Karnataka’s chase of 200 with his eighth half-century in List A cricket © ESPNcricinfo
At Eden Gardens, Services’ pace trio of Suraj Yadav (3 for 36), Diwesh Pathania (4 for 21) and Sachidanand Pandey (3 for 22) skittled Hyderabad out for 88 as they cantered to a five-wicket win to finish four points adrift of qualification. Hyderabad’s loss dropped them to third position as they crashed out of the tournament after going into the game at second place.
A stand of 39 runs for the sixth wicket between Tanmay Agarwal (16) and Chama Milind (32) saved some of Hyderabad’s blushes after they lost their first five wickets inside the game’s first eleven overs. They were struggling at 25 for 5 when the duo added the only significant stand for Hyderabad, but Services’ pacers ran through the lower order to take the last five wickets for only 22 runs.
Hyderabad’s bowlers, led by spinner Mohammed Siraj (2 for 31), made the Services chase difficult, as they lost five wickets in their chase, but with only 89 runs to get, useful knocks of 24 from Gaurav Kochar and 22 from G Rahul Singh were enough for them to complete an inconsequential win for their side in the 21st over.
Karnataka completed their sixth-straight win to finish as Group D toppers after a comfortable three-wicket win, after three wickets from Vinay Kumar and a half century from opener Mayank Agarwal (66 off 76 balls) helped them chase down Chhattisgarh’s target of 200 at Kolkata’s Jadavpur University Ground.
Vinay Kumar (3 for 19) struck early in the first innings after Chhatisgarh chose to bat as they slumped from 7 for no loss to 60 for 4 before Abhimanyu Chauhan (58 off 102 balls) and Mohammad Kaif (43* off 52 balls) put on a 75-run fifth-wicket stand to build a recovery. Chauhan was the fifth man to go with the team at 135 for 5 but with regular wickets falling, Chhatisgarh were soon bowled out for 199, losing their last four wickets for 12 runs.
Karnataka’s chase started strong after a 52-run opening partnership between Agarwal and Robin Uthappa (23) which was followed up by useful contributions from the captain Manish Pandey (34 of 40 balls) and Stuart Binny (25 off 34 balls) after losing both openers took them close to the 200 target. Shubham Thakur’s three wickets kept Chhatisgarh in the hunt but with the small target at hand, Karnataka crossed the line with more than 12 overs to spare.
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo