Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Vidarbha came out victorious in their respective pre-quarterfinals to progress deeper into the India’s premier domestic List A competition. The three teams defeated Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Tripura, respectively, on December 19.
In pre-quarterfinal 1 played at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur, Vidarbha kept Tripura at bay despite the eastern rivals enjoying their moments against the western giants. Vidarbha scored only 258/7 in their 50 overs batting first but still won the knock-out by 34 runs.
Half-centuries from Atharva Taide (51), Yash Rathod (57) and crucial forties from Ganesh Satish (40), Akshay Wadkar (41) propelled Vidarbha past the 250-run mark. M Murasingh (2/41) and Rana Dutta (2/47) picked up two wickets apiece for Tripura in their miserly spells.
In the run-chase, Tripura made a solid start, with openers Bishal Ghosh (44) and Bikramkumar Das (61), adding 96 runs for the first wicket, before No.3 Samit Gohel contributed 32. At 145/1, Tripura looked all set to coast to a victory. But then they collapsed poorly to 224 all out, as none of their other batters made past 20.
Yash Thakur (4/45) and Darshan Nalkande (3/41) were amongst the wickets for Vidarbha.
Karnataka ran past Rajasthan easily in the second pre-quarterfinal of the tournament. In an all-around display, the Southern giants dismissed their opposition for just 199 before chasing the total down with eight wickets intact.
Captain Deepak Hooda played a heroic knock of 109 off 109 balls, but insipid support at the other end meant that Rajasthan failed even to reach 200. In a sorry-looking scorecard, Samarpit Joshi with 33 was the only other batter to stick with Hooda for any length of time.
Vijaykumar Vyshak (4/22) was the chief destroyer with the ball for Karnataka, who went about professionally in their run-chase. They did lose an early wicket in the form of young, talented Devdutt Padikkal (4). But then half-centuries from Ravikumar Samarth (54), Krishnamurthy Siddharth (85*) and Manish Pandey (52*) took their team through.
Aniket Choudhary (1/39) and Kamlesh Nagarkoti (1/27) were the only ones to enter the wickets column for Rajasthan.
In the pre-quarterfinal 3, UP continued their good run past MP to enter the quarterfinals phase. MP could only manage a score of 234 in 49.2 overs, before seeing UP overhaul them with five wickets in the tank.
MP will be disappointed that their batting let them down on a big day. Shubham Sharma top-scored with an 83 off 99, while Rameez Khan (31), Rajat Patidar (46) and in-form Venkatesh Iyer (30) got starts. But none of them pushed on to get a significant individual score which would’ve taken MP to a total in excess of 270-280.
Yash Dayal (3/35) was the stand-out bowler for UP in the first half, where experienced Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2/46) and Shivam Mavi (2/51) also bagged two wickets each.
In the second half, UP began precariously, losing three early wickets to be reduced to 43/3. But then half-centuries from Akshdeep Nath (78), Rinku Singh (58*), and before them a crucial 38 from Sameer Rizvi, helped UP recover and eventually reach the winning post. Akshdeep, who has always been one of UP’s better players, will be delighted to have top-scored in such a big game.
India hopefuls Avesh Khan (2/47) and Iyer (1/40) bowled quite nicely for MP, but, eventually, there weren’t enough runs on the board for MP to make a match out of it.
Karnataka will now take on Tamil Nadu in Quarterfinal 2, while UP face Himachal Pradesh in Quarterfinal 1 on December 21. Vidarbha will play Quarterfinal 3 versus Saurashtra on December 22, the day Services play Quarterfinal 4 against Kerala.
