Punjab win despite Narwal fireworks

North Zone

Centuries from Ravi Inder Singh and Mayank Sidhana proved enough for Punjab to beat Delhi by 19 runs at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium in Mohali, but the hosts were given a scare by Sumit Narwal, whose blazing 62 off 36 balls threatened to get Delhi to Punjab's total of 284. Delhi were never in the chase until Narwal, who is fast enhancing his reputation as a lower-order batsman in addition to being a seam bowler, came in. They had lost wickets regularly and were 152 for 6, needing 133 to win in 89 balls. But Narwal smashed five fours and two sixes and got Delhi to 264 for 8, with 21 required off 15 balls. However, left-arm seamer Amit Uniyal finally stopped the party, and got Narwal out in the 48th over. Ishant Sharma, who had given Narwal able support, scoring 31 off 24 balls with four boundaries, could not finish the job and was run out two balls later, giving Punjab the victory. The hosts had not anticipated the match going down to the wire when Ravi Singh's unbeaten 126 and Sidhana's 100 off 95 balls had got them to a strong total.

Services eased to victory in their chase of Jammu & Kashmir's 214 at the Dhruve Pandove Stadium in Patiala, winning by six wickets with 10 overs remaining. J & K's innings never got going and they were bowled out in 48.2 overs, with seamer Yashpal Singh taking 3 for 39. Services chase was led by a quick 84 by Sumit Singh, an innings that included 11 fours and three sixes, and a steady 52 by Jasvir Singh.

Amit Mishra took four wickets as Haryana skittled Himachal Pradesh out for 138 to complete a 111-run victory at the Sector 16 Stadium in Chandigarh. Haryana had been in trouble in their own innings, slumping to 162 for 8, but a half-century from Dhruv Singh down the order helped them reach 249. Himachal's chase never got going, and only lasted 35.5 overs with captain Paras Dogra the top scorer with 31.

South Zone

M Vijay's 92 led Tamil Nadu's successful chase of Karnataka's 239 at the Perintalmanna Cricket Stadium in Malappuram. Karnataka's innings had got off to a rollicking start with Robin Uthappa smacking 86 off 54 balls with nine fours and five sixes. Offspinner Murthy Prabhu, though, kept chipping away at the wickets, and even though Karnataka's run-rate was always over 5.00 an over, they were bowled out in 43.2 overs for 239. None of the middle and lower order contributed as Prabhu returned figures of 5 for 59. Tamil Nadu could afford to be more measured in their chase, and Vijay anchored the innings, taking 113 balls for his 92. Abhinav Mukund scored 40 off 49 as Tamil Nadu looked at ease in their chase. They ended up finishing the match with 13 balls remaining and six wickets in hand.

Hyderabad comfortably chased Kerala's 222 at the Fort Maidan in Palakkad, with Ravi Teja and 20-year-old Akshath Reddy notching up half-centuries. Kerala got off to a slow start to their innings. By the 31st over, they had only lost one wicket, but had scored just 100 runs. VA Jagadeesh top scored for Kerala with 82, but his strike-rate of 68.33 did his team no favours. Robert Fernandez tried to up the scoring rate with his 50 off 43 balls, but Kerala never got enough runs on the board. The spinners did the job for Hyderabad with offspinner Amol Shinde taking 4 for 41 and left-armer Pragyan Ojha picking up 3 for 34. Teja played the anchor role in the chase, taking 100 balls for his 57; Reddy kept the scoreboard ticking over with his 86 off 104; and then Bavanaka Sandeep got some quick runs at the end to make sure Hyderabad won with 19 balls to spare.

Biplab Samantray scored an unbeaten 97, and Paresh Patel scored 82 and took four wickets as Orissa completed an easy victory over Assam at the Maharaja Bir Bikram College Stadium in Agartala. Paresh steadided Orissa's innings after they were 12 for 2, and the 111-run partnership between him and Samantray put them on top. Samantray accelerated towards the end of the innings, but was left stranded on 97 not out off 96 balls, unable to reach his century. Orissa had managed to reach 256 for 6. Assam's reply got off to a solid start with PP Das' 58 helping them reach 87 for 1. Wickets fell in a heap after that, with only Tarjinder Singh providing some resistance in the middle order. Paresh ran through the lower-middle order and tail to finish with figures of 4 for 31, as Assam were bowled out for 201.

An all-round performance by Subroto Ghosh led Jharkhand to a 93-run win over Tripura at the Polytechnic Institute Ground in Agartala, A 121-run partnership for the second wicket between Ghosh, who scored 76, and Ishank Jaggi (43) gave Jharkhand a solid base after they had lost a wicket in the first over, and then captain Saurabh Tiwary, who scored 44 off 41 balls, and Kumar Deobrat (47 not out off 43) accelerated, getting Jharkhand to 243. In reply, Tripura could only manage 150, with Ghosh taking 3 for 21.