Kerala go on top after clinical win
Kerala gave a big boost to their net runrate to brighten their qualifying hopes, beating Chhattisgarh by five wickets with 93 balls to spare.
Rajkot, Dec. 12: Promising all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer continued his sensational form with both bat and ball as Madhya Pradesh pipped Chandigarh by five runs in a high-scoring group D thriller of the Vijay Hazare Trophy National One-dayers here on Sunday.
Venkatesh blazed his way to a 113-ball 151 (8x4, 10x6) to power Madhya Pradesh to a challenging 331/9.
Chandigarh responded in style with centuries from skipper Manan Vohra (105) and Ankit Kaushik (111) and needed 32 runs from the last 12 balls.
Bowling the penultimate over, Venkatesh gave another breakthrough dismissing Gurinder Singh en route to his 2/64 from 10 overs that included a maiden as Chandigarh could only manage 326/8.
Madhya Pradesh young gun Avesh Khan led the bowling show with 3/72, while Puneet Datey also chipped in with two wickets along with Venkatesh.
The win helped Madhya Pradesh (+0.590) remain at second place behind Kerala (+0.778) who nosed ahead in group D table with a five-wicket win over Chhattisgarh.
Maharashtra (+0.074) slipped to third place despite their four-wicket win over Uttarakhand as it's a three-way race for the knockouts from the group of death — D — with one match left in the league.
Opting to bat at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium here, Madhya Pradesh were down in the dumps losing opener Kuldeep Gehi (0) and Rajat Patidar (2) cheaply and were reduced to 56/4 inside 14 overs.
Kerala gave a big boost to their net run-rate to brighten their qualifying hopes, beating Chhattisgarh by five wickets with 93 balls to spare. Sijomon Joseph was the chief architect of their big win as the left-arm spinner returned with a stunning 5/33 to floor Chhattisgarh to a paltry
189 in 46.2 overs after they opted to bat.
In reply, Kerala suffered a triple blow midway into their chase when they lost opener Rohan Kunnummal
(36), Mohammed Azharuddeen (45) and skipper Sanju Samson (0) without any addition to the total. There was more drama in store when they lost Sachin Baby (4) to be reduced to 89/4.