File photo – Mayank Agarwal led Karnataka’s chase of 200 with his eighth half-century in List A cricket © ESPNcricinfo
A batting meltdown at Eden Gardens cost Hyderabad dear as they were pipped for a knockout berth by Jharkhand on net run rate.
Services’ pace trio of Suraj Yadav (3 for 36), Diwesh Pathania (4 for 21) and Sachidanand Pandey (3 for 22) skittled Hyderabad for 88, before the batsman wobbled and eventually got home by five wickets. Hyderabad ended their campaign with four wins in six matches.
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 11 overs. They were struggling at 25 for 5 when the duo added the only significant stand. Hyderabad’s bowlers, led by spinner Mohammed Siraj (2 for 31), made the Services chase difficult, but useful knocks from Gaurav Kochar (24) and G Rahul Singh (22) were enough to complete a consolation win.
Karnataka completed their sixth-straight win to finish as Group D toppers after beating Chhattisgarh by three wickets . Captain Vinay Kumar snared three wickets while opener Mayank Agarwal slammed a half-century (66 off 76 balls) to help complete the chase of 200 at Kolkata’s Jadavpur University Ground.
Vinay struck early after Chhatisgarh chose to bat; they slumped to 60 for 4 before Abhimanyu Chauhan (58 off 102 balls) and Mohammad Kaif (43* off 52 balls) put on a 75 for the fifth-wicket. Chauhan was the fifth man to go with the team on 135. They would lose their last four wickets for 12 to finish with 199.
Karnataka’s started strongly after a 52-run opening partnership between Agarwal and Robin Uthappa (23). That was followed up by useful contributions from captain Manish Pandey (34 of 40 balls) and Stuart Binny (25 off 34 balls). Shubham Thakur’s three wickets kept Chhattisgarh in the hunt, but a batting collapse would eventually mean they didn’t have enough to defend in the end.
Jharkhand qualified to the next round after Shahbaz Nadeem‘s second List A fifth-wicket haul set up their five-wicket win over Jammu & Kashmir.
A patient 78 from Kumar Deobrat led Jharkhand’s 185 chase. They got past the line with 90 balls to spare. Dhoni, who hit two fours and a six, was unbeaten on 19 when the winning run were scored. J&K got off to a strong start courtesy a 66-run third wicket partnership between Owais Shah (59) and Parvez Rasool (45 off 40 balls) but with Nadeem’s introduction to the attack tutned the game. He took took four wickets off his last three overs to set up a comfortable second-innings chase.
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo