Vijay Hazare Trophy - Shreyas, Rinku, Siraj dazzle; modest outings for Rahul, Pant

Having been cleared by the Centre of Excellence [COE] to resume playing following a complete recovery from the spleen injury he suffered in Australia, Shreyas warmed up for the home ODI series against New Zealand starting January 11 with a rollicking 82 in Mumbai's thrilling seven-run win over HP in Jaipur.

Sent in to bat after a delayed start due to fog and bad light, Mumbai rode on Shreyas and Musheer Khan's knocks (73) to post 299 for 9 in the allotted 33 overs. India's T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav, who has been short of runs, contributed an 18-ball 24, while allrounder Shivam Dube made an 18-ball 20.

In response, Himachal went down fighting, with Pukhraj Mann, Ankush Bains and Mayank Dagar all hitting half-centuries in a spirited chase. They eventually fell narrowly short, with Dube finishing with 4 for 68.

Mumbai's fifth win in six games now puts them in second place in Group C, thereby assuring them of a quarter-final berth with a game in hand on Thursday.

Elsewhere in Jaipur, Gill managed just 11 off 12 in his first game of the 2025-26 VHT, as Punjab beat Goa by six wickets to secure top spot in Group C. Gill, who missed the previous match due to a bout of food poisoning, will now miss the remainder of the tournament on national duty. Prabhsimran Singh will continue to lead Punjab.

For a second straight game, Rahul batted at No. 5 as Karnataka, the defending champions, continued their winning run. On Tuesday, they beat Rajasthan by 150 runs to record their sixth straight win.

Coming in with the platform set by openers Devdutt Padikkal and Mayank Agarwal - who put together 184 in 28.2 overs - Rahul made a 28-ball 25 before falling to left-arm spinner Manav Suthar. Two days ago, Rahul had come in similarly with the platform already set to make a 28-ball 35 in Karnataka's imposing 332 for 7 as they went on to beat Tripura.

A key contributor to Karnataka's winning streak, Padikkal has now racked up 600 or more runs for the third time in the tournament's history - the only player to do so. He got there en route to his 91 on Tuesday, narrowly missing out on what would have been his fifth century in six innings.

Like Padikkal, another key driver in his team's sensational run in the group stages has been Uttar Pradesh captain Rinku. The left-handed batter has scored three half-centuries and a century to help UP maintain their unbeaten run after six games. His latest effort, on Tuesday, was an unbeaten 30-ball 57 that helped set up a 54-run win over Vidarbha.

Overall, in six innings, Rinku has made 371 runs at an average of 123.66. Most importantly, he has struck his runs as a finisher at 145.49.

Named in India's ODI squad to play New Zealand, Siraj tuned up with the perfect preparation in a high-scoring fixture against Bengal. After Hyderabad racked up 352 courtesy Aman Rao's 200 not out - his maiden List A ton in only his third game - Siraj ripped through Bengal's top order in a fiery opening burst that read 5-0-32-3.

This included the big wickets of Abhimanyu Easwaran and Sudip Gharami. Siraj finished with figures of 4 for 58. He had picked up 1 for 19 in the previous game against Chandigarh.

In his last outing before joining India's ODI squad for the New Zealand series, the Delhi captain made a nine-ball 24 as they chased down a modest 180 in just 21.4 overs against Railways. Opener Priyansh Arya set the tone for the chase with a bristling 41-ball 80.

Pant finishes with 212 runs in six innings, with two half-centuries and a best of 70. He scored his runs at a strike rate of 112.76. Arya tops the run charts for Delhi - 310 runs in six innings - with Pant second and Virat Kohli third (208), despite having played in just two games at the start of the tournament.

Meanwhile, seamer Harshit Rana continued his impressive run following the South Africa ODIs. Two days after picking up a four-for in Delhi's win over Services, Rana picked up 1 for 42 against Railways.

Among other players, Washington Sundar had a modest outing as he managed just one wicket and scored 9 off 30 opening the batting as Tamil Nadu beat Tripura by 54 runs. Meanwhile, Ravindra Jadeja scored an unbeaten 36 and picked up 1 for 48 as Saurashtra beat Services on Tuesday.

Elsewhere, fast bowler Shabbir Khan picked up 7 for 30 as Bihar defeated Manipur to win the VHT Plate final by six wickets. With the win, Bihar have qualified for the Elite division in next year's VHT.