Chennai, Feb 14 (IANS) Andhra registered their sixth straight win in Group C of the Vijay Hazare Trophy cricket tournament after they overcame Mumbai by 29 runs here on Wednesday.

Skipper G Hanuma Vihari (169) and K.S. Bharat (105) starred for Andhra as the triumph enabled them to finish on top of the standings with 24 points and qualify for the national knockout phase, along with Mumbai, which finished second with 16 points.

Vihari and Bharat stitched together a massive 254-run partnership in 204 balls, propelling Andhra to a mammoth 344/5 in 50 overs before restricting the opponents to 315 for 9 despite Siddhesh Lad’s strokeful ton.

From Group D, Hyderabad and Saurashtra made the cut.

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu ended their losing streak by posting a comfortable seven-wicket win over Team Rajasthan.

Left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore took five wickets, his first in List ‘A’ cricket.

In the other match of the day, wicketkeeper Keenan Vaz snared seven victims (six catches and a stumping) to equal the record of Mahesh Rawat and Parthiv Patel in List A matches as Goa edged Gujarat by one wicket in a humdinger.

In Group D, Jharkhand thrashed Jammu & Kashmir by 97 runs riding skipper Virat Singh’s 96.

After putting a decent 296 runs on board while batting first, Jharkhand wrapped up J & K for a paltry 199 in 46 overs.

Shubham Pundir was the top scorer for the side with 74 runs, while right-arm pacer Ashish Kumar emerged with impressive figures of 3/23 for Jharkhand.

In the Saurashtra versus Vidarbha game, the former thrashed the Ranji Trophy champions by eight wickets for a hat-trick of wins, helping them seal a quarterfinal berth.

Hosts Hyderbad had pacer Mohammed Siraj to thank for his 5/37 which helped them pummel Chhattisgarh by 84 runs and join Saurashtra in the last eight as Group D toppers.

Saurashtra edged out Vidarbha on a better net run-rate for the second spot.

In Group A, Manan Vohra’s strokeful 143 went in vain as Punjab were derailed in their bid to make the knockouts, with a four-wicket defeat at the hands of Railways.

Opting to bat first, Vohra played a brilliant knock of 143 off 148 balls laced with 13 fours and two sixes. He was well supported by skipper and India veteran Yuvraj Singh (35) as Punjab posted 280/8 in 50 overs.

In reply, Railways rode on Arindam Ghosh’s unbeaten 89 to gun down the target in 49.2 overs.

In another game, group leaders Baroda continued their purple patch by confirming their place in the playoffs with a 57-run win over lowly Odisha.

Krunal Pandya hit a 73-ball 84 as captain Deepak Hooda too notched up a half century (52) to guide Baroda to 317/6 in 50 overs, batting first.

In reply, Odisha could only manage 260 all out with Biplab Samantray (74) top-scoring and Prayash Singh scoring 51.

For Baroda, Atit Seth, Lukman Meriwala and Ninad Rathwa all took two wickets each.

In the last Group A encounter, mid-table Haryana thrashed winless wooden spooners Assam by 86 runs.

–IANS
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