Mohanty's five-for sinks Assam; Baroda, Vidarbha win big

An unbeaten 206-run partnership between opener Anurag Sarangi (104*) and Govinda Poddar (100*) took Odisha to a nine-wicket win against Assam at Delhi's Feroz Shah Kotla. The win - Odisha's first of the tournament - was orchestrated by fast bowler Basant Mohanty, whose five wickets in the first innings helped bowl Assam out for 207, before their batsmen chased down the target with ease.

Mohanty, who returned career-best List A figures of 5 for 26, was assisted by Deepak Behera's three wickets to trouble Assam's batsmen from the start. While captain Arun Karthik's 73-ball 56 and Jamaluddin Syed Mohammad's 78-ball 53 took Assam near the 200-run mark, regular wickets at the start, and towards the end meant Assam managed to set Odisha a target of 208. Six Assam batsmen finished with single-digit scores.

After Sandeep Pattnaik fell early in Odisha's innings, Sarangi and Poddar struck 206 runs in 188 balls in an unbeaten stand to remove any hope of an Assam victory. The duo hit 24 fours and four sixes to take Odisha to a with more than 14 overs to spare.

Baroda's bowlers, led by Hardik Pandya (3-26) and Soaeb Tai (3-36), skittled Punjab out for 174 runs to complete a 75-run victory at Delhi's Karnail Stadium. Punjab crumbled from a position of strength at 125 for 2 - courtesy Gurkeerat Singh's 62 and Mandeep Singh's 43 - to being all out 49 runs later, thereby taking Baroda to the top of the group.

After fifties from Krunal Pandya (78) and Aditya Waghmode (54) at the top of Baroda's innings gave them a strong start, four wickets from Baltej Singh and another three from Siddarth Kaul meant Baroda folded for 249 runs. From 193 for 4 in the 43rd over, Baroda managed to add only 56 runs for their last six wickets.

Gurkeerat and Singh gave Punjab's chase the stability it needed at the top, but regular wickets from Hardik, Tai and Atit Sheth (2-24) meant Baroda managed to skittle their opponents out thereafter without much trouble.

Half centuries from openers Faiz Fazal (53) and Jitesh Sharma (84) helped Vidarbha easily chase down the 200 target set by Railways to win by eight wickets at Delhi's Palam A Ground. The duo's first-wicket stand yielded 117 runs before Ganesh Satish (36*) and Ambati Rayudu (19*) took Vidarbha home with 28 deliveries to spare. This after Railways managed to post 199 courtesy Manjeet Singh's innings of 54 off 30 deliveries after he came in to bat at No. 10.

Akshay Karnewar (3-32) and Ravikumar Thakur (2-47) ran through Railways' top order while run outs inflicted by YS Thakur and Rajneesh Gurbani meant Railways were struggling at 134 for 9. Manjeet came to the rescue striking three fours and five sixes to help his team post a competitive total their bowlers could look to defend.

But the target of 200 was never enough as Fazal's patient 95-ball 53 and Jitesh's 114-ball 84 gave Vidarbha the start their other batsmen could carry on from. And carry on they did as Satish and Rayudu saw their team through without any other casualties. The win saw Vidarbha move to second spot, tied on eight points with group leaders Baroda.