Offspinner Akshay Wakhare‘s second five-wicket haul of the match skittled Services for 99 and sewed up Vidarbha‘s 192-run win – their second of the season – in Nagpur. Vidarbha are now second on the Group D points table, which is led by Punjab.
Resuming on 111 for 2, Vidarbha extended their second-innings score to 223 for 6 before declaring the innings. Akshay Karnewar‘s career-best 48 not out off 28 balls and Wakhare’s unbeaten 17 off 16 balls helped Vidarbha set Services 292.
Wakhare then starred with the ball, taking out opener Navneet Singh and captain Nakul Verma inside ten overs. He then sliced through the middle order to hasten the collapse. Legspinner Karn Sharma chipped in with three wickets to finish with a match haul of five wickets. Rahul Singh(33), Vikas Yadav (30) and Amit Pachhara (10) were the only Services batsmen to reach double-figures in their second innings, which lasted only 28.1 overs.
Seamers Sandeep Sharma and Barinder Sran bagged seven wickets between them to dismiss Chhattisgarh for 297 and wrap up Punjab‘s second win of the season, in Raipur.
Chhattisgarh managed 126 runs to their overnight score of 171 for 4 before being bowled out in 102.4 overs. Ashutosh Singh led the hosts’ resistance with 119 off 222 balls – his second century in two matches – but he received little support from the middle order. Vishal Kushwah (45) and Sumit Ruikar (36) added a counterattacking 74-run stand for the eighth wicket but it only served to reduce the margin of defeat. Anmolpreet Singh scooped the Man-of-the-Match award for his career-best 267.
Chasing 141, Bengal scored 65 for 4 in 15 overs, and settled for a draw with Himachal Pradesh in Kolkata. The hosts, though, walked away with three points by virtue of their first-innings advantage.
After being bowled out for 206 in their first innings and handing Bengal a first-innings lead of 213, Himachal Pradesh put up stiffer resistance in their second dig. Resuming on 207 for 2 on the final day, Himachal lost Nikhil Gangta and Paras Dogra early, but opener Priyanshu Khanduri moved to 95, before Ashok Dinda had him caught behind in the 84th over. Rishi Dhawan then rallied the lower order with an unbeaten 51 off 90 balls, including seven fours, and hauled the score to 353.
Saha was promoted to the top in the fourth innings and had a crack at the target, hitting an unbeaten 34 off 42 balls. But wickets falling at the other end did not help Bengal and held them to a draw.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo