Vijay Hazare Trophy 2021-22: Ton-up Gaikwad stars in Maharashtra's high-scoring successful chase against MP

Continuing his imperious form, Ruturaj Gaikwad struck a majestic 136 to lead Maharashtra to a five-wicket win over Madhya Pradesh in a high-scoring thriller in a group D for the Vijay Hazare Trophy here on Wednesday. Chasing a target of 329, Maharashtra won the match with two balls to spare.

Gaikwad, who was the IPL 2021's top run getter to play a key role in Chennai Super Kings' fourth triumph recently, hit 14 fours and four sixes in his 112-ball knock.

The 24-year-old had scores of 51, 80, 81, 3 and 44 in the recently concluded Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and he missed the knock-out stage after being named in India’s T20I squad against New Zealand where he did not play a single game in their 3-0 whitewash.

Chasing a tall 329, the Maharashtra skipper, who had scored 635 runs with four fifties and a century in the IPL en route to surpass KL Rahul's tally of 626 runs to become the youngest batter to clinch the Orange Cap, laid the foundation with a 107-run opening partnership with Yash Nahar.

Nahar hit 49 from 55 balls with the help of seven boundaries and one six as the duo put together their entertaining opening stand in 17.1 overs to lay the foundation.

After Nahar's departure, Naushad Shaikh extended a helping hand with a 33-ball 34 before Gaikwad and his deputy Rahul Tripathi (56 from 50 balls; 6x4, 1x6) put on another crucial 75 runs for the third wicket.

Upcoming India all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer gave a vital breakthrough taking the prized scalp of Gaikwad in the 39th over, as they lost another wicket in Azim Kazi (1) with the addition of just 11 runs. But Tripathi ensured that there was no further damage as he kept them in the hunt en route to completing a fine half-century.

Having dismissed Kazi, debutant Aman Bhadoriya (2/54) went on to dismiss Tripathi in the 46th over with Maharashtra needing 31 runs from 29 balls. Ankit Bawne (24 not out from 22 balls; 2x4) and Swapnil Fulpagar (22 not out from 17 balls; 3x4) held on their nerves to complete the chase in the final over.

Earlier, opting to bat Madhya Pradesh notched 328/6 with Shubham Sharma and Aditya Shrivastava putting on centuries each. Sharma scored 108 runs in 102 balls (10x4, 2x6), while Shrivastava was at his explosive best in his 104 runs from 82 balls with 9 fours and 3 sixes in a 175-run partnership.

Opener Abhishek Bhandari made 70 in 80 balls with 10 fours, while batting at no 6 Venkatesh propped up the total with a five-ball 14 with two sixes.

Brief Scores

Jharkhand 263/8 (Virat Singh 79, Kaushal Singh 69, Pradeep Sangwan 3/46) Delhi 264/4 in 47 overs (Himmat Singh 113, Dhruv Shorey 64, Shokhar Dhawan 0).
Delhi won by 6 wickets.

Saurashtra 223 (Jaydev Unadkat 33, Shivam Mavi 4/26). UP 191 (Rinku Sigh 65, Chirag Jani 5/35). Saurasjtra won by 32 runs.

Haryana 162 (Yashu Sharma 68, Tilak Verma 4/23). Hyderabad 167/5 (Tanmay Agarwal 77). Hyderabad won by 5 wickets.

Madhya Pradesh 328/6; 50 overs (Shubham Sharma 108, Aditya Shrivastava 104 Abhishek Bhandari 70; Mukesh Choudhary 2/54, Ashay Palkar 2/86) lost to Maharashtra 330/5; 49. 4 overs (Ruturaj Gaikwad 136, Rahul Tripathi 56, Yash Nahar 49; Amon Bhadoriya 2/54) by five wickets.

Chhattisgarh 256/6; 50 overs (Amandeep Khare 106, Harpreet Singh 104; Agrim Tiwari 3/64, Ankit Manor 2/42) beat Uttarakhand 235/5; 50 overs (Robin Bisht 130 not out, Swapnil Singh 57) by 21 runs.

Chandigarh 184/8; 50 overs (Manan Vohra 56; Sijomon Joseph 3/44, Basil Thampi 2/31) lost to Kerala 185/4; 34 overs (Sachin Baby 59 not out, Rohan Kunnumamal 46) by six wickets.

Tamil Nadu 290 for 8 in 50 overs (M Shahrukh Khan 66 (35 balls, 6X4, 5X6), B Indrajith 45, Washington Sundar 34, Dhawal Kulkarni 3/45, Mohit Avasthi 2/69) beat Mumbai 236 all out in 46.4 overs (Shams Mulani 75, Sairaj B Patel 42, Tanush Kotian 27, M Siddharth 3/43, Washington Sundar 3/60, R Sai Kishore 2/35) by 54 runs.
TN: 4 points, Mumbai: 0.

Karnataka 289 for 6 in 50 overs (Ravikumar Samarth 95 (107 balls, 10X4), Manish Pandey 64 not out (2X4, 4X6), K Siddharth 61) beat Pondicherry 53 all out in 17.3 overs (J Suchith 4/3, V Koushik 3/19) by 236 runs.Karnataka: 4 points, Pondicherry: 0.

Bengal 230 all out in 49. 4 overs (Kaif Ahmed 67, Abhishek Das 62, Ritwik Roy Chowdhury 48, Atit Sheth 4/62, Lukman Meriwala 3/33, Krunal Pandya 2/34) beat Baroda 203 all out in 48.2 overs (Krunal Pandya 39, P A Kumar 38, Kedar Devdhar 35, Akash Deep 3/39) by 27 runs. Bengal: 4 points, Baroda: 0.

Himachal Pradesh 213 all out in 46 overs (Rishi Dhawan 61; Yash Thakur 5/53) lost to Vidarbha 216 for 3 in 39.5 overs (Yash Rathod 76, Atharva Taide 64; Gurvinder Singh 2/39).

JK 171 all out in 42.1 overs (Rasool 76; Chintan Gaja 4/30, Hemang Patel 3/29) lost to Gujarat 172 for 5 in 36. 5 overs (Bhargav 57; Umar Nazir Mir 2/33).

Odisha 276 for 5 in 50 overs (Subhranshu Senapati 116; harishankar Reddy 2/63) beat AP 215 all out in 46.3 overs (Ricky Bhui 74; Jayant Behara 4/24).

Manipur 80 all out in 32.3 overs (Abu Nechim 3/10, Imliwati Lemtur 3/16, Rongsen Jonathan 2/4) lost to Nagaland 83 for 2 in 28. 3 overs (Shrikant Mundhe 51 not out) by eight wickets. Nagaland: 4 points, Manipur: 0.

Bihar 222 for 8 in 50 overs (Sakibul Gani 114. Shasheem Rathour 43, Remruatdika Ralte 5/60) lost to Mizoram 223 for 3 in 47. 4 overs (Uday Kaul 121 not out, Joseph Lalthankhuma 43 not out) by seven wickets. Mizoram: 4 points, Bihar: 0.

Meghalaya 265 for 5 in 50 overs (Chirag Khurana 100, Larry Sangma 69, D Ravi Teja 25 not out, Sumit Singh 3/50) beat Sikkim 101 all out in 39 overs (Liyan Khan 26, Palzor Tamang 25, Dippu Sangma 3/13, Akash Choudhary 3/18) by 164 runs. Meghalaya: 4 points, Sikkim: 0.

Tripura 336 for 4 in 50 overs (Samit Gohel 135 (128 balls, 10X4, 5X6), K B Pawan 64, Rajat Dey 44 not out) beat Arunachal Pradesh 126 all out in 39. 2 overs (Nazeeb Saiyed 75 not out, Rahil Shah 4/16, Ajoy Sarkar 3/15) by 210 runs. Tripura: 4 points, Arunachal: 0.

Punjab 219 in 49.4 overs (Gurkeerat Singh Mann 67; Khaleel Ahmed 4/36, Aniket Chaudhary 2/38, Kamlesh Nagarkoti 2/50) lost to Rajasthan 223/4 in 49 overs (Abhijeet Tomar 104 not out) by six wickets.

Assam 215/9 in 50 overs (Swarupam Purkayastha 45, Riyan Parag 40; Lakshay Garg 3/37, Amulya Pandrekar 3/37) lost to Goa 219/5 in 48. 3 overs (Eknath Kerkar 61 not out, Snehal Kauthankar 49) by five wickets.

Services 254/8 in 50 overs (Rajat Paliwal 50, Devender Lochab 50, Shivam Tiwari 41; Amit Mishra 2/42, Dhrushant Soni 2/47, Karn Sharma 2/43, Harsh Tyagi 2/56) beat Railways 249/9 in 50 overs (Shivam Chaudhary 49, Akshat Pandey 44; Pulkit Narang 4/42, Varun Choudhary 2/49) by five runs.