Skipper Gambhir stars in Delhi’s win over Saurashtra
NEW DELHI: Youngster Himmat Singh struck a half-century under pressure after medium pacer Subodh Bhati’s 5/24 as Delhi beat Saurashtra by five wickets in the opening Group B encounter of Vijay Hazare Trophy on Thursday. Gautam Gambhir also started his latest captaincy stint with a stroke-filled 62 off 48 balls as Delhi chased a target of 238 in 46 overs.
Himmat (74 off 93 balls) and Lalit Yadav (36 off 54 balls) came together at 152/5 and batted sensibly to take the home team past the target.
It was skipper Gambhir, who started on a positive note and gave his team the required momentum as Unmukt Chand and Rishabh Pant were dismissed cheaply.
Earlier, Saurashtra slumped from 222/4 to 237 all out, losing six wickets for 15 runs in four overs. For Saurashtra, Cheteshwar Pujara scored a painstaking 53 off 89 while Sheldon Jackson struck 62 off 78 balls.
In other Group B matches, Chhattisgarh beat Madhya Pradesh by 122 runs while Andhra defeated Odisha by six wickets.
In Vadodara, Manipur registered their maiden victory in domestic cricket with a 10-wicket win over northeastern rivals Sikkim in a plate group match. Medium pacer Bishworjit Konthoujam returned with excellent figures of 7-2-9-3 as Manipur bundled out Sikkim for 84 in 37.2 overs.
In another plate group match, Pragyan Ojha-led Bihar downed Uttarakhand by five wickets with 75 balls to spare, to register backto-back wins in successive days and lead the table with eight points.
Brief scores:
Rajasthan 73 all out in 28.3 overs (S Nadeem 8/10) lost to Jharkhand 76/3 in 14.3 overs (A Singh 22) by seven wickets.
Saurashtra 237 all out in 49.3 overs (S Jackson 62; S Bhati 5/24) lost to Delhi 238/5 in 46 overs (H Singh 74, G Gambhir 62) by five wickets.
Uttarakhand 160 all out in 43.2 overs (V Saxena 57) lost to Bihar 163/5 in 37.3 overs (V Ranjan 79) by five wickets.
Mizoram 154 all out in 43.4 overs (T Kohli 90) lost to Meghalaya 155/2 in 27.3 overs (P Bisht 95*) by eight wickets.
Tamil Nadu 205/8 in 49 overs (B Indrajith 58) lost to Gujarat 210/6 in 47.1 overs (P Panchal 117*) by four wickets.
J&K 96 in 23.4 overs (P Barman 4/20) lost to Bengal 98/4 in 20.4 overs by six wickets.
Sikkim 84 all out in 37.2 overs (B Konthoujam 3/9) lost to Manipur 85/0 in 19.2 overs by 10 wickets.
Vidarbha 254 all out in 50 overs (A Taide 57) lost to Baroda 151/2 in 29 overs (A Waghmode 50) by 37 runs via VJD method.
Railways 187 all out in 47.5 overs (M Dagar 4/38) lost to Himachal Pradesh 170/5 (P Chopra 77) by 33 runs via VJD method.
Maharashtra 245/8 in 50 overs (A Bawane 104*, R Tripathi 70) beat Karnataka 107/6 in 22.4 overs by 57 runs via VJD method.