Rinku stars as UP stun K’taka

Bengaluru, Feb. 20: Rinku Singh smashed an unbeaten 62 as Uttar Pradesh stunned defending champions Karnataka by nine runs via the VJD Method in their rain-truncated Vijay Hazare Trophy Group C opener here on Saturday.

Chasing 247 in the stipulated 50 overs, Uttar Pradesh had a slow start and were 150/4 in 32 overs, but then, the Kolkata Knight Riders left-hander took charge of the proceedings, hitting seven boundaries and one six in his 61ball knock.

Rain halted play at 45.2 overs with UP placed at 215/4, which was nine runs more than the par score of 207.

UP’s opening duo of Abhishek Goswami (54 off 67 balls) and Karan Sharma (40 off 74 balls) initially struggled to get going against the Karnataka new ball bowlers, Abhimanyu Mithun and Prasidh Krishna, managing only nine runs in the first five overs.

The pair put on a century stand but they lost three wickets for nine runs as the defending champions looked to seize the momentum, But Rinku turned it around with his brisk halfcentury.

A depleted Karnataka, who were missing the services of K.L. Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Manish Pandey and K Gowtham, also got off to a slow start.

The promising Devdutt Padikkal (52 from 84 balls; 7x4) laid the foundation before No. 6 Aniruddha Joshi’s blazing 48-ball 68 (4x4, 6x4) propped up their total.

At Alur, veteran opener Robin Uthappa led Kerala’s chase of 259 runs with an explosive 85-ball 107 (10x4, 4x6) before rain stopped play in 38.2 overs with Kerala 233/4, which was above the par score as per the VJD Method.

In the second match at Alur, Railways thrashed Bihar by 10 wickets with openers Mrunal Devdhar (105 not out) and Pratham Singh (72 not out) taking 29 overs to cruise to a 190-run target.

Opting to bowl, Railways exploited the conditions beautifully as pacer T Pradeep rattled the top six batsmen to reduce Bihar to 64/6 in 13.3 overs on the way to his 6/43, before his new-ball parter Amit Mishra (3/30) cleaned up the tail to bundle out Bihar for 189 in 45.5 overs.—