Vijay Hazare Trophy: Chhattisgarh continues winning run, beat Andhra by 56 runs

Bengaluru: Chhattisgarh continued its winning run in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, beating Andhra by 56 runs in the Elite Group A game here on Sunday. Asked to bat first, Chhattisgarh, who had stunned defending champions Mumbai on Saturday, crawled to 268/9 in their allotted 50 overs at the Alur cricket stadium II near here. After opener Jiwanjyot Singh (16) fell early, Shashank Chandrakar (54) and one-down Ashutosh Singh (75) rallied the innings with their 50-run stand for the second wicket. Shashank and skipper Harpreet Singh Bhatia (16) fell cheaply, but that did not deter Ashutosh from playing his shots as he completed his 50 in 71 balls. His 93-ball knock had six fours. [caption id=“attachment_4375939” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational Image. Getty Images[/caption] But the Andhra bowlers made a significant comeback as they did not allow the opposition batsman to settle. Ashutosh walked back to the pavilion, following which Amandeep Khare (27) also fell early. Then only Shashank Singh made a quick- fire 45 off 25 balls, with two fours and four sixes, to ensure that his team got past the 260-run mark. The chase began well for Andhra as their openers conjured 48 for the first wicket before Ashwin Hebber (22) was caught by Puneet Datey off Shashank Singh. Another opener D B Prashanth Kumar (44) and K S Bharat also fell as Andhra were in a spot of bother at 90-3. Chhatisgarh bowlers kept taking wickets at regular intervals and the Andhra innings eventually folded up at 212, way short of their target. Shashank Singh, an offie (3-37) was the pick of the bowlers, while right-arm medium pacer Puneet Datey (2-40) and slow-left arm orthodox Ajay Mandal (2 -34) grabbed two wickets each. In another Elite Group A match at Alur, Kerala defeated Hyderabad by 62 runs, with right-arm medium pacer KM Asif shinning with the ball and returning with figures of 4-34 as he rattled the Hyderabad batting order. And in the third match of the Elite Group A held at Just Cricket here, Goa defeated Jharkhand by 42 runs to bag four points. Brief Scores: Chhattisgarh 268/9 (Ashutosh Singh 75, Shashank Chandrakar 54; Prithvi Raj Yarra 3-63) defeat Andhra 212 all out (D B Prashant Kumar 44, K V Sasikanth 35; Shashank Singh 3-37) by 56 runs. Chhattisgarh 4 points, Andhra 0 points. Kerala 227/9 (Sanju Samson 36, Rahul P 35; Ajay Dev Goud 3-52) beat Hyderabad 165 all out (Tanmay Agarwal 69, J Mallikarjun 24, K M Asif 4-34) by 62 runs. Kerala 4 points, Hyderabad 0 points. Goa 266/8 (Aditya Kaushik 117, C M Gautam 40, Rahul Shukla 6-33) beat Jharkhand 224 all out (Ishan Kishan 43, Anukul Roy 40; Darshan Misal 4-35) by 42 runs. Goa 4 points, Jharkhand 0 points.