Gopal five-for flattens hapless Kerala

A five-wicket haul from Shreyas Gopal shot Kerala out for 49 as Karnataka wrapped up a nine-wicket win at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Nothing went right for Kerala from the moment they chose to bat, as seamers Vinay Kumar, Abhimanyu Mithun and Sreenath Aravind reduced them to 16 for 4 within the 11th over. Legspinner Gopal then took over, running through the middle and lower order to finish with figures of 5 for 19 in five overs as Kerala were all out in 22 overs. It was Gopal's maiden five-for in List A matches.

Karnataka took only 5.5 overs to reach their target, losing Mayank Agarwal early before KL Rahul and Karun Nair finished the game with an unbroken partnership of 45 off just 27 balls. It was the second-biggest victory in terms of balls remaining in the tournament's history.

Karnataka are placed third on the Group B table, behind Gujarat who are on 16 points. If Karnataka beat Jammu & Kashmir, and second-placed Gujarat lose to Kerala, then the net run rate will decide which team from the group joins Jharkhand in the quarter-finals.

Jharkhand's bowlers, led by left-arm spinner Sonu Singh, bundled Railways out for 96 to set up their side's 115-run win in Alur. The win took them to the top of the Group B table, sealing their place in the quarter-finals.

Sonu, who made his List A debut in Jharkhand's previous match against Karnataka, took 4 for 15 in six overs as Railways' chase lasted only 37 overs. Of Railways' tally of 96, 44 came from Arindam Ghosh, while the next best was 11. Shahbaz Nadeem and Ankit Dabas took two wickets apiece.

Earlier, Jharkhand posted 211 for 5 in their allotted 45 overs. Saurabh Tiwary top-scored with 49, while MS Dhoni and captain Kumar Deobrat chipped in with 37 and 38 respectively.

Hardik Patel's 4 for 28 helped Gujarat defend a total 187 against Jammu & Kashmir and complete a 36-run win.

Set a target of 188, J&K were reduced to 32 for 5 in the 14th over, with Hardik, Rush Kalaria and Jasprit Bumrah striking early. A 97-run partnership for the sixth wicket between Parvez Rasool (65) and Sandeep Singh threatened to take the game away from Gujarat, but Hardik provided the breakthrough here with Rasool's wicket. J&K could add only 22 runs after Rasool fell and folded in the 48th over.

Earlier Rujul Bhatt's 66 had anchored Gujarat's innings, guiding them to 187 even as the next highest score in the line-up was 30. Medium-pacer Omar Alam and left-arm spinner Waseem Raza took three wickets apiece.