Vijay Hazare Trophy: Jharkhand race to third straight win

Varun Aaron and Rahul Shukla came up with four-wicket hauls, as M.S. Dhoni-led Jharkhand raced to their third consecutive victory by prevailing over Saurashtra by 42 runs in a low-scoring Group D encounter of the Vijay Hazare Trophy cricket championship at the Edens Gardens here on Wednesday.

Put in to bat, Jharkhand were skittled out for 125 in only 27.3 overs, before Aaron (4/20) and Shukla (4/32) ended Saurashtra's chase at a meagre score of 83 in 25.1 overs on a track of uneven bounce that gave seamers all the wickets.

For Jharkhand, Ishan Kishan struck 53 (40b, 5x4, 4x6) while Dhoni got 23. Eight of the Jharkhand batsmen could not reach double digit scores, as the glare fell on the Eden Gardens track where 20 wickets were lost within five hours.

For Saurastra, Shaurya Sanandia (5/47) was the most successful bowler, while Kushang Patel (4/39) was the other tormentor of the Jharkhand willowers.

Brief Scores:

Jharkhand 125 in 27.3 overs (I. Kishan 53; S. Sanandia 5/47, K. Patel 4/39) vs Saurashtra 83 in 25.1 overs (V. Aaron 4/20, Rahul Shukla 4/32) at Eden Gardens in group D.

Services 214 in 48.4 overs (N. Verma 68, S. Yadav 52; P. Rasool 3/36) vs Jammu and Kashmir 190 in 45.1 overs (A. Bandy 59, P. Bisht 45; V. Singh 3/41) at Bengal Cricket Academy, Kalyani in group D.

Hyderabad 197 in 47 overs (B. Sandeep 70 not out; S. Thakur 4/44) vs Chhattisgarh 193/9 (A. Singh 64) at Jadavpur University second Campus, Saltlake, in Group D.

--IANS

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