Group A
Jay Gokul Bista’s unbeaten 144 set up Mumbai’s second win of the campaign, this one by 26 runs over Railways. Bista’s ton aided by a half-century from Suved Parkar and a 17-ball 41 from Prasad Pawar powered Mumbai to 324. Railways’ response was led by a thrilling 70-ball 102 from Upendra Yadav while Vivek Singh added 95 off 91. But with the next highest score being 15, they fell short of the target. Mohit Avasthi took 4 for 53 for Mumbai.
At Alur, Tripura recorded a massive 148-run victory over Saurashtra after half-centuries from Bikramkumar Das, Sudip Chatterjee and G Satish took them to 258. Joydeb Deb then returned extraordinary figures of 5 for 15 as Saurashtra folded for 110 with Cheteshwar Pujara’s 24 the highest score in the chase.
Elsewhere in the group, Puducherry made short work of Sikkim while a fine 120 from Vishnu Vinod and a four-fer from Shreyas Gopal gave Kerala victory over Odisha.
Group B
Vidarbha made it three wins out of three with a clinical victory against Maharashtra in a curtailed game at the KL Saini Ground in Jaipur. Leading the charge was a five-fer (5 for 34) from Darshan Nalkande that kept Maharashtra to 255/8 in 40 overs. The revised target was then chased down courtesy four half-centuries, from Atharva Taide, Aman Mokhade, Harsh Dubey and Shubham Dubey.
Elsewhere in the group, Kumar Deobrat’s 164 gave Jharkhand a big win in a game that saw Meghalaya use as many as nine bowling options. At the Sawai Man Singh stadium, Rohit Rayudu’s sedate 102 went in vain as Chattisgarh chased down Hyderabad’s 271 with 11 balls to spare thanks in large part to a blazing 38-ball 65 from opener Rishabh Tiwari.
Group C
In the marquee fixture of this round, Karnataka ran comfortable victors by six wickets against Delhi. The win was a product of an excellent bowling show that kept Delhi down to a paltry 143. Hundred of those runs came from the bat of Ayush Badoni while Vidwath Kaverappa and V Koushik claimed three wickets each. In chase, Devdutt Padikkal continued his rich vein of form with a 69-ball 70.
Haryana kept pace with Karnataka by claiming a third straight win of their own following Ankit Kumar’s 115 that powered them to a strong total of 295. Besides Gaurav Puri’s 45-ball 76, there were no substantial contributions from Chanidgarh’s batters in the chase leading to a comprehensive 84-run loss. Elsewhere, Uttarakhand registered a big win in a rain-curtailed game against Mizoram while J&K’s fixture against Bihar was abandoned due to a wet outfield.
Group D
A five-fer from legspinner Rahul Chahar (5 for 41) and Khaleel Ahmed’s 3 for 36 helped Rajasthan defend a small total of 211 against Uttar Pradesh and extend their winning start to the campaign to three games. UP were unable to back up an equally excellent bowling show from Bhuvneshwar Kumar (4 for 20) with only Priyam Garg (46 off 62) managing any score of substance as the team folded for 151 inside 42 overs.
At the Mahajan Cricket Academy Ground in Chandigarh, Gujarat chased down Arunachal Pradesh’s score of 159 in just 13 overs with Urvil Patel smashing a 41-ball 100*, a knock studded by nine fours and seven sixes. Incidentally, Urvil was released by Gujarat Titans only a day prior to him scoring the second-fastest List A hundred by an Indian batter. The record still belongs to Yusuf Pathan, who smashed a 40-ball ton against Maharashtra in 2010.
Group E
Sandeep Warrier finished with 4 for 23 while T Natarajan and Baba Aparajith picked a brace each as Tamil Nadu bowled Bengal out for 84 at the Brabourne Stadium. TN’s chase wasn’t devoid of drama either as they lost five wickets in response and needed a steady 30 from N Jagadeesan to see them over the line.
In another low-scoring contest in the group, Madhya Pradesh were kept down to 177 but still ran home winners by 88 runs as Punjab folded for 89 inside 19 overs. Arshad Khan and Kumar Kartikeya picked up three wickets each while Rahul Batham added two.
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