Kulkarni's four-for routs Assam for 102
A round-up of the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2015-16 Group A matches played on December 13, 2015
ESPNcricinfo staff
13-Dec-2015
File photo - Dhawal Kulkarni chipped in with a useful 21 before taking four Assam wickets • AFP
Dhawal Kulkarni's 4 for 19, and three wickets from Abhishek Nayar and Sagar Trivedi, helped Mumbai bundle Assam out for 102 runs for a 96-run win. A middle-order slump that saw Mumbai fall from 60 for 1 to 118 for 7 restricted the side to 198 but their bowlers routed the opponents within 35 overs to hand Assam their third straight loss.
The first half of Mumbai's innings, after they opted to bat, was held together by Shreyas Iyer's 65-ball 49. Once Iyer had departed - one of the six wickets Mumbai lost for 58 runs - Suryakant Yadav's 46-run partnership with Dhawal Kulkarni (21*) lifted the side past 150. Yadav was eventually dismissed for 42 off 58 deliveries, and Mumbai then benefited from Trivedi's quick 24 off 19, which included three fours and a six. Kulkarni dismissed Assam's openers - Pallavkumar Das and Sibsankar Roy - within 11 overs after which Nayar and Trivedi carved up the middle-order. Amit Verma's 33 and J Syed Mohammad's 25 were the only scores above 20 as Assam crumbled to 83 for 8 by the 29th over.
The first half of Mumbai's innings, after they opted to bat, was held together by Shreyas Iyer's 65-ball 49. Once Iyer had departed - one of the six wickets Mumbai lost for 58 runs - Suryakant Yadav's 46-run partnership with Dhawal Kulkarni (21*) lifted the side past 150. Yadav was eventually dismissed for 42 off 58 deliveries, and Mumbai then benefited from Trivedi's quick 24 off 19, which included three fours and a six. Kulkarni dismissed Assam's openers - Pallavkumar Das and Sibsankar Roy - within 11 overs after which Nayar and Trivedi carved up the middle-order. Amit Verma's 33 and J Syed Mohammad's 25 were the only scores above 20 as Assam crumbled to 83 for 8 by the 29th over.
Fifties from Jiwanjot Singh and Mayank Sidhana helped Punjab cruise to a six-wicket win after a batting collapse limited Tamil Nadu to 226 in Hyderabad. Put in to bat, Tamil Nadu made a strong start as openers Abhinav Mukund and Dinesh Karthik shared a 54-run partnership. Once Abhinav fell, Karthik and B Aparajith added 87 runs for the second wicket to consolidate Tamil Nadu's position. Much of that work came undone in the last 10 overs of the innings. M Vijay was stumped off Harbhajan Singh for 35 and after his wicket, Tamil Nadu lost their last six wickets for only nine runs. Four of those wickets fell to Siddarth Kaul, who struck in successive overs, while left-arm pacer Brainder Sran took two of his three wickets in that period. Punjab were shaky at 24 for 2 in the seventh over but Jiwanjot and Gurkeerat Singh Mann forged a recovery through a 92-run partnership. After Gurkeerat fell for 41, Jiwanjot and Sidhana added another 86 runs to take Punjab closer to victory. Jiwanjot was eventually dismissed for 85, but Sidhana finished unbeaten on a run-a-ball 67.
Fifties from Mumtaz Qadir and Rajat Paliwal helped Services overcome a target of 225 with five wickets to spare against Hyderabad in the penultimate over in Hyderabad. The pair shared in a 116-run partnership for the third wicket to set the platform for Services' chase. While Qadir scored 68 off 111 deliveries, Paliwal struck a 71-ball 64. That Services had been set a target of 224 was largely down to Pagadala Naidu (45*) and Chama Milind (42*) at Nos 8 and 9. The pair combined for an unbeaten 85-run, eighth-wicket partnership that lifted Hyderabad's score past 200, after the side had been reduced to 139 for 7 by the 37th over. Apart from Hanuma Vihari (35) and Bavanaka Sandeep (41), the rest of the top seven failed to notch up an individual score of more than 15.
