Vijay Hazare Trophy: Gujarat enter knockouts with seventh straight win; Bengal hammer Bihar

Jaipur: Gujarat joined Tamil Nadu in qualifying for the knockout stage of the Vijay Hazare Trophy from Group ‘C’, with a 14-run win over Services in Jaipur on Thursday. The Parthiv Patel-led side posted its seventh straight win, a feat also achieved by Tamil Nadu, with two more games to play. [caption id=“attachment_4344145” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Getty[/caption] Gujarat and TN, both on 28 points, will face off on 16 October. Batting first, skipper Patel (99) led Gujarat to 279 for 9 before restricting their rivals to 265 for 8 in 50 overs. Sent in to bat, Gujarat lost opener Priyank Panchal (1) in the second over, caught by Mohit Ahlwat off Varun Choudhary. Parthiv as is his wont, mixed defence with aggression and utilised every scoring opportunity. His superb 106-ball knock was the cornerstone of Gujarat’s total with handy contributions coming from Axar Patel (47 not out, 41 balls, 3 fours, 1 six) and Manpreet Juneja (46, 51 balls, 5 fours). Parthiv was unlucky to miss out on a ton, falling one run short, to Rajat Paliwal. In response, Services were provided a superb start by openers Ravi Chauhan (64, 82 balls, 7 fours) and Nakul Verma (82, 97 balls, 12 fours) as they added 123 in 26 overs before the former fell. Despite the bright opening partnership, Services could not score quickly as the Gujarat bowlers tightened up and also struck some vital blows and crucial intervals, falling short by 14 runs. Medium-pacer Rush Kalaria was the pick of the bowlers, picking up 2 for 28 from nine overs while Axar Patel and Piyush Chawla had two scalps each. In another match, Bengal hammered Bihar by nine wickets, riding on a superb 112 not out by captain Abhimanyu Easwaran, who stroked 10 fours and 1 six in his effort. He was involved in an unbroken 165-run stand for the second wicket with Abhishek Raman (61 not out,96 balls, 5 fours). Brief scores: Bihar 216 for 7 in 50 overs (Babul Kumar 93, Md Rahamatullah 53, Akash Deep 3/45) lost to Bengal 217 for 1 in 40.2 overs (Abhimanyu Easwaran 112 not out, Abhishek Raman 61 not out). Bengal: 4 points, Bihar: 0. Gujarat 279 for 9 in 50 overs (Parthiv Patel 99, Axar Patel 47 not out, P Narang 2/38) beat Services 265 for 8 in 59 overs (Nakul Varma 82, Ravi Chauhan 61, R Kalaria 2/28). Gujarat: 4 points, Services: 0. J&K 182 all out in 43.5 overs (Jatin Wadhwan 43, Aquib Nabi 33, Waseem Raza 28 not out, Gourav Yadav 6/40) beat Madhya Pradesh 178 all out in 48 overs (Anand Singh Bais 52, Venkatesh Iyer 29 not out, Umar Nazir 3/25, Parvez Rasool 3/30). J&K: 4 points, MP: 0.