Baroda beat Karnataka by seven wickets in Vijay Hazare quarters

Baroda defeated Karnataka by seven wickets in the quarter-finals of the Vijay Hazare 50-overs domestic cricket tournament at the Ferozeshah Kotla stadium here on Sunday.

After Karnataka were bowled out for 233, Baroda needed only 45.5 overs -- and a loss of three wickets -- to overhaul the 234-run target as they rode on superb batting from Kedar Devdhar (78) and Krunal Pandya (70) to storm into the last four stage.

Devdhar and Aditya Waghmode (26) laid a solid foundation for the chase. They put up 64 runs for the opening wicket before the latter was sent back to the pavilion by slow left-arm orthodox Jagadeesha Suchith in the 15th over.

Incoming batsman Krunal Pandya (70) then forged a 92-run partnership with Devdhar to help Baroda get past the 150-run mark in 33 overs.

Just when things seemed good for Baroda, pacer Sreenath Aravind dismissed Devdhar. He faced 98 balls and slammed four boundaries and two sixes.

Soon, Pandya was also sent packing in the 41st over by Aravind to give some winning hope to Karnataka.

However, middle-order batsman Deepak Hooda (34 not out) and Yusuf Pathan (10 not out) completed the run chase comfortably with over four overs left.

For Karnataka, Aravind took two wickets while Suchith chipped in with one wicket.

Earlier, Karnataka were bowled out for 233 in 49 overs with Pavan Deshpande (54), Ravikumar Samarth (44) and Mayank Agarwal (40) emerging as major contributors.

For Baroda, Krunal Pandya was the most successful bowler, scalping three wickets for 32 runs.

--IANS

gau/pur/dg