Vishnu Solanki
Vishnu Solanki's stroke-filled century and bowlers' splendid show set up Baroda's five-wicket win over Goa in an Elite Group A game as they kicked off their Vijay Hazare Trophy campaign on a winning note here on Saturday.
Invited to bat at the Kholdvad Gymkhana ground, Baroda bundled out Goa for 263 and then chased the target with nine balls to spare as they rode on Solanki’s 108 off 132 balls and half-centuries from skipper Krunal Pandya (71 off 77 balls) and opener Smit Patel (58 off 64 balls).
For Goa, Snehal Kauthankar top-scored with a 100-ball 81, hammering six fours and two sixes after they lost openers Ishaan Gadekar (7) and Aditya Kaushik (7) early.
Baroda bowlers led by pacer Atit Sheth (3/50) and left-arm spinner Krunal Pandya (3/62) kept making in-roads even as Kauthankar did not get a steady partner.
Skipper Amit Verma (24), wicket-keeper KD Eknath (43), Suyash Prabhudessai (39), Darshan Misal (20) and Lakshay Garg (23) could not convert their starts into big scores.
Sheth and Krunal, were well complimented by pacer Lukman Meriwala (2/43), who was recently picked up by Delhi Capitals and all-rounder Babashafi Pathan (1/43).
Baroda lost opener Kedar Devdhar (0) early, but Smit Patel and Solanki rallied the innings with their 95-run stand for the second wicket to bring them back into the contest.
Solanki took on the Goa bowlers with utmost ease and hammered 12 fours and a six, and found an able ally in skipper Krunal, as they stitched a crucial 138-run stand for the third wicket.
Baroda lost Solanki and Krunal in quick succession, but Ninad Rathwa (10 not out) and Abhimanyusingh Rajput (6 not out) took them home in 48.3 overs.
Brief Scores: Goa 263 all out (Snehal Kauthankar 81; K D Eknath 43; Atit Sheth 3/50; Krunal Pandya 3/62) lost to Baroda 264/5 (Vishnu Solanki 108, Krunal Pandya 71; Amit Verma 2-39, Amulya Pandrekar 1-35) by five wickets.
At C K Pithwala Ground: Hyderabad 349/5 (Tilak Verma 156 not out, Tanmay Agarwal 86; R A Dey 2/45, A S Sarkar 1/42) beat Tripura 236 (Milind Kumar 67, Bikram Kumar Das 65; C V Milind 5/43, B Sandeep 2/37) by 113 runs.
At Lalbhai Contractor Stadium: Chhattisgarh 231 all out (Shashank Chandrakar 92, Ashutosh Singh 47; Arzan Nagwaswalla 6/54, Chintan Gaja 2/50) lost to Gujarat 232/7 (Dhruv Raval 38, B H Merai 38; Veer Pratap Singh 2/38) by three wickets.
