Vijay Hazare Trophy 2018: Tamil Nadu ride on R Sai Kishore's five-wicket haul to beat Rajasthan; Bengal win against Tripura

Chennai: Left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore starred with a five-wicket haul as host Tamil Nadu edged out Rajasthan by one wicket for their second win in the Vijay Hazare Trophy Elite Group C match on Sunday. In a match played at the TI-Murugappa ground where Shahbaz Nadeem returned with a world record List A a few days ago, Tamil Nadu bowled out their rivals for 133 in 37.1 overs after skipper B Indrajith won the toss and elected to field first. [caption id=“attachment_5131811” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representative image. Reuters[/caption] Rajasthan were on the backfoot in the very first over as Amitkumar Gautam was leg-before-wicket to M Mohammed off the second ball. Sai Kishore, who picked up the experienced Robin Bist for 36-ball six, got into the act and picked up two more quick wickets to leave the rivals at 24 for 4. Tajinder Dillon, who came in at No 7, was the only Rajasthan batsman to offer resistance with a knock of 55 (58b, 6x4s, 3x6) as the innings folded for 133. Dhillon and Abhimanyu Lamba added 58 runs in 70 balls for the eight wicket from 66 for 7. Sai Kishore finished with 5 for 39, his second five-wicket haul in List A matches while young mystery spinner CV Varun took three for 28. In response, Tamil Nadu didn’t have things easy as experienced Abhinav Mukund fell for a duck in the opening over. Things got worse as N Jagadeesan, a centurion in the previous match, and stand-in skipper Indrajith followed in quick succession to leave TN at 8 for 3. M Kaushik Gandhi (18) and B Aparajith (17) strung together a partnership before the former was run-out. Later, Aparajith fell to Rahul Chahar. The left-handed B Anirudh Sitaram contributed a vital 40 (3x4) but the team looked in trouble at 113 for 9 when he departed. However, Mohammed (22 not out) and a determined T Natarajan (7 not out) saw Tamil Nadu home amid mounting tension. Rahul Chahar took three for 35 in a disciplined bowling effort by the Rajasthan team. In another match, Tripura opener Smit Patel’s brilliant ton went in vain as the team went down by nine runs at the MA Chidambaram stadium while Haryana maintained their winning run, beating Jammu & Kashmir by three wickets in a low-scoring game at the SRMC turf ground. Brief scores: Bengal 272 for 9 in 50 overs (Manoj Tiwary 67 (67b, 4x4, 3x6), Sudip Chatterjee 44, Anustup Majumdar 49, Prayas Ray Barman 25 not out, Rajat Dey 4 for 48) beat Tripura 263 for 4 in 50 overs (Smit Patel 135 not out (153b, 13x4), Nirupam Sen Choudhury 53 (70b, 7x4), Bravish Shetty 37). Points: Bengal: 4; Tripura: 0. Jammu and Kashmir 108 in 34.3 overs (Paras Sharma 25, Amit Mishra 3 for 26) lost to Haryana 112 for 7 in 36.1 overs (Pramod Chandila 29, Jayant Yadav 28 not out, Auqib Nabi 3 for 32). Points: Haryana: 4; Jammu and Kashmir: 0. Rajasthan 133 in 37.1 overs (Tajinder Dhillon 55 (58b, 6x4s, 3x6), R Sai Kishore 5 for 39, C V Varun 3 for 28) lost to Tamil Nadu 134 for 9 in 34.5 overs (B Anirudh Sitaram 40, M Mohammed 22 not out, Rahul Chahar 3 for 35). Points: Tamil Nadu: 4; Team Rajasthan: 0.