KOCHI: Devdutt Padikkal continued his fine form in the Vijay Hazare Trophy as his third-successive ton on Sunday helped the defending champions Karnataka seal a 10-wicket win over Railways and progress to the quarterfinal. Andhra also qualified after beating Jharkhand.
Even though Tamil Nadu emerged victorious against Vidarbha, Andhra piped them to top spot in Elite Group B thanks to better net run rate. Kerala kept their qualification hopes alive. After restricting Bihar to 148, they chased down the target in just 8.5 overs. Odisha lost to Bihar in Bengaluru.
Hyderabad pulled off a thrilling victory with a two-run win over Goa. They finished third in Elite Group A with Gujarat qualifying for the last-8. It was Padikkal who was stole the limelight. After Karnataka restricted Railways to 284 for nine, Padikkal (145 n.o) and skipper Samarth R (130 n.o) led them to a comprehensive win.
Meanwhile in Indore, Tamil Nadu made short work of Vidarbha after bundling them out for 150 and then chasing down the target in 11.2 overs. Baba Aparajith, Kousik J and M Mohammed picked up three wickets each. Mohammed went onto score an unbeaten 37 while N Jagadeesan made quickfire 48.
Andhra also took less than 10 overs to chase down Jharkhand’s 139. The most nail-biting fixture of the day was the Hyderabad-Goa game. Hyderabad posted 345 for six with Tanmay Agarwal (150) and Tilak Varma (128) doing the bulk of the scoring. Goa pushed them all the way thanks to KD Eknath (169 n.o) and Snehal Kauthankar (116) but fell short by two runs.
Brief scores
Group A: In Surat: Hyderabad 345/6 in 50 ovs (Tanmay 150, Tilak 128) bt Goa 343/6 in 50 ovs (Eknath 169 n.o, Kauthankar 116; Teja 3/69). Group B: In Indore: Vidarbha 150 in 41 ovs (Aparajith 3/10, Koushik 3/22, Mohammed 3/33) lost to TN 152/5 in 11.2 ovs (Jagadeesan 48 n.o). Jharkhand 139 in 46.2 ovs (Harishankar 4/30) lost to Andhra 140/3 in 9.5 ovs (Bhui 57 n.o). Group C: In Bengaluru: Railways 284/9 in 50 ovs (Pratham 129; Gopal 3/41) lost to Karnataka 285/0 in 40.3 ovs (Padikkal 145 n.o, Samarth 130 n.o). Bihar 148 in 440.2 ovs (Babul 64; Sreesanth 4/30, Saxena 3/30) lost to Kerala 149/1 in 8.5 ovs (Uthappa 87 n.o). Odisha 148 in 40.1 ovs (Senapati 49 n.o; Shivam 6/22) lost to UP 150/4 in 21.4 ovs.