Defending champions Mumbai were in for a shock as minnows Chhattisgarh defeated them by 5 wickets in a high-scoring thriller in the Vijay Hazare trophy here on Saturday.
At the Alur Cricket Stadium III, put into bat, Mumbai posted a descent 317/5 in their allotted 50 overs, but Chhattisgarh chased the target with one ball to spare and rode on a gritty 117 not out by middle-order batsman Amandeep Khare.
Put into bat, Mumbai's experienced opener Aditya Tare slammed 90 off 107 balls and remained the top-scorer.
After Jay Bista (24) was dismissed cheaply, Tare got support from young prodigy Yashasvi Jaiswal (44) as the two rebuilt the innings.
Skipper Shreyas Iyer too chipped in with a 46-ball 50.
And when Iyer departed, Mumbai were comfortably poised at 4-238 in 45 overs.
But the ever-reliable Surya Kumar Yadav had some different plans as he hammered 8 fours and six sixes in his quickfire 81 off 31 balls and took Chhattisgarh bowlers to task.
It was due to Surya's blistering knock that Mumbai went past the 300-run mark.
Chhattisgarh did not have a good start with opener Shashank Chandrakar (5) falling early.
Jiwanjyot Singh (44) and one-down Ashutosh Singh (35) tried to rally the innings.
But Jiwanjyot was trapped by spinner Shams Mulani as Chhattisgarh were 82-2 and then Ashutosh also fell when the score was 95.
However, Amandeep Khare showed his mettle and made a gritty 117 off just 94 balls, with 8 fours and 4 sixes to his credit.
He first got support from Shashank Singh (40) and then shared an unbeaten 96-run stand with Ajay Mandal (39 not out) as the two took the side home.
For Mumbai, Shams Mulani (3-33) was successful, but others, including experienced pacer Dhawal Kulkarni (1-66), had a bad day in office.
At the M Chinnaswamy Stadium here, Karnataka defeated Kerala by 60 runs, with K L Rahul slamming a hundred.
Rahul, who plays for India, took the opposition bowlers to task as he hit a stroke-filed 131 off 122 balls.
He hit 10 fours and four sixes and remained the top-scorer for his team.
Skipper Manish Pandey also chipped in with 50 off 51 balls, but then Kerala bowlers were successful in restricting them to 294.
But Karnataka bowlers put a spirited show despite a fighting hundred by Kerala opener Vishnu Vinod (104) to bowl them out for 234 and register a win.
Meanwhile, in another Elite Group A match, Hyderabad defeated Saurashtra by 121 runs at the Alur Cricket Stadium 2.
Brief Scores: Mumbai 317/5 (Aditya Tare 90, Surya Kumar Yadav 81, Shreyas Iyer 50; Shashank Singh 2-54) lost to Chhattisgarh 318/5 (Amandeep Khare 117 not out, Jiwanjyot Singh 44, Shams Mulani 3-33) by 5 wickets.
Mumbai 0 points, Chhattisgarh 4 points.
Hyderabad 252/5 (Tanmay Agarwal 79, Tilak Verma 65; Jaydev Unadkat 2-46) beat Saurashtra 131 (Sheldon Jackson 39, Chirag Jani 23, B Sandeep 5-26) by 121 runs.
Hyderabad 4 points, Saurashtra 0 points.
Karnataka 294 all out (K L Rahul 131, Manish Pandey 50; Asif K M 3-59) beat Kerala 234 all out (Vishnu Vinod 104, Sanju Samson 67; Ronit More 3-42) by 60 runs.
Karnataka 4 points, Kerala 0 points.
