Saurashtra and Bengal ease into semi-finals

Saurashtra captain Jaydev Shah slammed a 80-ball 100 to lead his side to a comfortable seven-wicket victory over Karnataka in the quarter-finals of the Vijay Hazare Trophy. After being asked to bat, Karnataka could only muster 234 as Robin Uthappa top scored with a measured 50. Left-arm medium-pacer Balkrishna Jadeja, playing his second List A game, took three wickets for Saurashtra but was expensive, giving away 68 runs. The Saurashtra chase was given a solid platform with openers Chirag Pathak (64) and Sagar Jogiyani adding 87. Shah then propelled them to victory, crunching 10 fours and five sixes in his second List A hundred.

The day's other quarter-final also saw a captain's century set up a win. Bengal cruised to a 48-run triumph over Delhi on the back of a commanding batting performance, led by captain Laxmi Ratan Shukla's 95-ball 124 in Visakhapatnam. Bengal got off to a good start as their openers forged a 74-run stand but stumbled as three wickets fell for the addition of five runs. They got back on track thanks to an express 120-run partnership between Shukla and Anustup Majumdar, who contributed less than a third of the runs in the stand. Debabrata Das chipped in with a quick 40 as Bengal finished on 295. Delhi's batsmen had to score briskly to chase down the big target and perished in the attempt. Though they reached 139 by the 25th over, they had lost five wickets and despite Under-19 World Cup-winning captain Virat Kohli's efforts, they were bowled out for 247.