Vijay Hazare Trophy : Indrajith’s knock goes in vain

In another match, Services notched up its second straight win, humbling Bengal by eight wickets. In the third match of the day, Gujarat outplayed Rajasthan by eight wickets with spinner Hardik Patel taking a five-wicket haul and Priyank Panchal (84) coming to the fore.

In the Tamil Nadu-Jharkhand match, the latter chose to bat after skipper Ishan Kishan won the toss. The talented southpaw continued his hot form and gave the team a rollicking start. Kishan made 85 off 87 balls (8x4, 3x6) and added 83 for the opening wicket with Anand Singh (52) and 104 with Virat Singh (48). 

The experienced Saurabh Tiwary weighed in with a half century to power Jharkhand past the 300 mark. Chasing 308 for a win, Tamil Nadu didn’t have the best of starts as the aggressive N Jagadeesan was dismissed early. Abhinav Mukund carved out a classy 63 but the loss of wickets pegged the host back.  Skipper Indrajith led a wonderful rear-guard and kept Tamil Nadu in the hunt with his scintillating stroke making but could not carry the team over the line.

A minute’s silence was observed before the start of the Bengal vs Services match as a mark of respect to former CAB president Biswanath Dutt.

Brief scores: Jharkhand 307 for eight in 50 overs (Anand Singh 52, Ishan Kishan 85, Virat Singh 48, Saurabh Tiwary  54, CV Varun 3/61) beat Tamil Nadu 299 in 49.5 overs (Abhinav Mukund 63, Baba Apa-rajith 38, Baba Indrajith 101, B Anirudh Sitaram 46, Varun Aaron 3/63, Anukul Roy 3/55)

Bengal 129 in 38 overs (Abhimanyu Easwaran 34, Anustup Majumdar 33, Varun Choudhary 3/23, Arjun Sharma 3/30) lost to Services 130 for two in 22 overs (G Rahul Singh (lhb) 53*, Rajat Paliwal 58*)  

Team Rajasthan 179 for nine in 50 overs (Chetan Bist 44, Chandrapal Singh 82*, Hardik Patel 5/22) lost to Gujarat 180 for two in 40 overs (Priyant Panchal 84, Kshitij Patel 89*)