Secunderabad Feb 5 (IANS) Ranji Trophy champions Vidarbha extended their purple patch this domestic cricket season edging past Jharkhand by seven runs in their Vijay Hazare 2018 50-overs tournament opener here on Monday.
Opting to bat after winning the toss in their Group D opener Vidarbha rode fine half centuries from Jitesh Sharma (79) Sanjay Ramaswamy (77) and Apoorv Wankhade (51) to pile a mammoth 300 before restricting the opposition for 293/7 despite Saurabh Tiwary (65) and Kumar Deobrat (60) notching half tons.
In another Group D tie Saurashtra rode on Sheldon Jackson s magnificent 107-ball 106 and India Test star Cheteshwar Pujara s patient 65 to post 286/7 before restricting Chattisgarh for 254/9 to register a 32-run win.
The final Group D match turned out to be lop-sided in favour of Hyderabad led from the front by skipper Akshath Reddy s quickfire 116-ball 127 and stumper Kolla Sumanth s unbeaten 26-ball 56 to post a mammoth 329/5 against the Services who failed to tackle the fiery Mohammed Siraj (5/45) to be bundled out for 201 in 40.4 overs.
In Group C Mumbai Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh registered wins in their respective opening games.
Mumbai rode on Suryakumar Yadav s unbeaten 85-ball 134 and opener Jay Bista s 90 to pile up a massive 332/5 before bowling out Madhya Pradesh for a meagre 258 with left-arm spinner Shams Mulani returning figures of 4/62.
Andhra gained the crucial four points after losing just four wickets during their chase of Rajasthan s 229/6 in just 45 overs.
Tamil Nadu were led by the centurion duo of Kaushik Gandhi (127 off 120) and skipper Vijay Shankar (100 off 102) to post 311/8 before skittling Gujarat for a meagre 235 despite Bhargav Merai s 97-ball 101.
In Group B Delhi Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh opened their campaign with wins over Uttar Pradesh Bengal and Tripura respectively.
Unmukt Chand s 125-ball 116 helped Delhi post 307/6 before pace duo of Kulwant Khejroliya (4/34) and skipper Pradeep Sangwan (3/28) bundled out Uttar Pradesh for 252 despite Umang Sharma s 104-ball 102.
For Bengal Opener Abhimanyu Easwaran s 103 and skipper Manoj Tiwary s 80 went in vain as Rahul Tripathi led Maharashtra with a scintillating 102-ball 125 to romp home by seven wickets with almost four overs to spare.
Similarly Yashpal Singh s unbeaten 113 went up in smoke for Tripura as Himachal Pradesh s Amit Kumar fired 101 to help his side to a six-wicket win.
Matches for Group A comprising Assam Baroda Karnataka Odisha Railways Haryana and Punjab will start from Wednesday.
--IANS
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