Sarfaraz’s century takes Mumbai to knockouts
MUMBAI: Sarfaraz Khan turned on the style when it mattered to score a 94-ball 117 to help Mumbai chase down Railways mammoth total and qualify for the knockouts of the Vijay Hazare Trophy in Ranchi on Wednesday.
In a must-win game and chasing a target of 338, Sarfaraz’s century, which included 10 four and five sixes, and useful contributions from skipper Ajinkya Rahane (88, 82b; 10x4s, 5x6s), Prithvi Shaw (51 47b; 8x4s) and Shams Mulani (46*, 31b; 5x4s, 1x6s) guided Mumbai to a convincing five-wicket win with nine balls to spare.
Till Wednesday Sarfaraz had a quite tournament. While he missed one match as he was hospitalised for kidney stone treatment, he couldn’t do much in rest of the matches. But when it mattered, he put his head down to take Mumbai home. Mumbai were in a spot of bother when they lost back-toback matches to Services and Maharashtra but three wins on the trot ensured they finished second in Group E behind Maharashtra. They will face Uttar Pradesh in the pre-quarterfinals on Saturday in Ahmedabad.
Mumbai will be without the services of Sarfaraz and Yashasvi Jaiswal for the knockouts as they have been included in India ‘A’ squad for the Bangladesh tour that started on November 29.
J&K qualify
Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir qualified for the knockouts from Group D with convincing wins.
While Punjab beat Nagaland by six wickets, Jammu and Kashmir defeated Uttarakhand by nine wickets.
Electing to bat, Nagaland were bowled out for 145 in 48.5 overs. Punjab chased down the target in 29.3 overs thanks to Anmolpreet Singh’s 65 off 59 balls.
Vivrant Sharma’s blistering knock of 154 off 124 balls helped J&K to a convincing nine wicket win over Uttarakhand.
Set a target of 252, Sharma and Shubham Khajuria (71, 90b) shared an opening partnership of 145 to make sure they cruised to victory.
Punjab made it to quarters as group winners while J&K will face Kerala in the pre-quarters on Saturday.
Brief scores: Railways 337/5 in 50 overs (Pratham Singh 109, Mohammad Saif 92, Vivek Singh 47) lost to 338/5 in 48.3 overs (Sarfaraz Khan 117, Ajinkya Rahane 88, Prithvi Shaw 51, Shams Mulani 46*, Armaan Jaffer 30; Susheel 3/53) by five wickets;
145 in 48.5 overs (Chetan Bist 47*; Mayank Markande 3/20, Abhishek
Sharma 3/31) lost to
146/4 in 29.3 overs (Anmolpreet Singh 65; Rongsen Jonathan 3/44); 251 for 6 in 50 overs (Priyanshu Khanduri 97, Swapnil Singh 61, Dikshanshu Negi 52; Auqib Nabi 3/48) lost to
257/1 in 42.2 overs (Vivrant Sharma 154*, Shubham Khajuria 71) by nine wickets; 349/7 in 50 overs (Shubham Sharma 88, Himanshu Mantri 60; Lukman Meriwala 2/61) beat 59 in 17.1 overs (Avesh Khan 6/37) by 290 runs