Hazare Trophy: Maharashtra beat Railways by seven wickets

Maharashtra produced a clinical show to defeat Railways by seven wickets in a lop- sided Elite Group A match of the Vijay Hazare Trophy played here Wednesday.

Maharashtra bowlers put up a spirited show to bundle out the Railways for a paltry 180 in 48.2 overs.

And then their batsman took the side home with 8.4 overs to spare at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium with Ruturaj Gaikwad (84 off 93 balls) top-scoring for the side.

For Railways, one-down Mrunal Devdhar (64 off 94 balls) emerged as the top-scorer.

But their other top four batsmen failed, with Maharashtra bowlers striking at regular intervals.

Skipper Saurabh Wakaskar (1), Karan Sharma (0), Akash Yadav (5) and Ankit Yadav (0) fell cheaply as Devdhar was devoid of partners at the other end.

Prashant Awasthi (25), Ashish Yadav (30) and Manish Rao (30) were unable to convert their starts into big scores, but their knocks ensured the Railways went past the 175-run mark.

For Maharashtra, experienced pacers Anupam Sanklecha (2-16), Samad Fallah (2-33), slow-left arm orthodox bowler Satyajeet Bachhav (2-38) and offie Shamshuzama Kazi (2-33) did the major damage.

The chase was a walk in the park as openers Ruturaj Gaikwad (84) and Jay Pande (38) gave Maharashtra an 88-run stand for the first wicket.

Wicket-keeper Mandar Bhandari (29), too, played his part to perfection, but fell when Maharashtra were cruising to victory.

Experienced Ankit Bawne (29 not out) and Kazi (9 not out) then held fort to take the side home.

In the other two Elite Group A matches, chasing a stiff 297, Himachal Pradesh rode on wicket-keeper batsman Ankush Bains' blistering unbeaten knock of 173 to defeat Vidarha by four wickets at Alur near Bengaluru.

At Bengaluru, Baroda defeated Karnataka by seven wickets by the VJD method.

Summarised scores: At Bengaluru: Railways 180 all out in 48.2 overs (Mrunal Devdhar 64, Ashish Yadav 30, Anupam Sanklecha 2-16) lost to Maharashtra 186/3 in 41.4 overs (Ruturaj Gaikwad 84, Jay Pande 38, Avinash Yadav 2-39) by seven wickets.

Karnataka 237 all out in 50 overs (R Samarth 102, Karun Nair 37, Atit Sheth 4-42) lost to Baroda 230/3 in 43.3 overs (Kedar Devdhar 123, Deepak Hooda 62 not out, M Prasidh Krishna 1-44).

At Alur: Vidarbha 297/7 in 50 overs (Atharva Taide 148 not out, Faiz Fazal 91, Vinay Galetiya 2-51) lost to Himachal Pradesh 298/6 in 47.5 overs (Ankush Bains 173 not out, Priyanshu Khanduri 63, Akshay Wakhare 2-60) by four wickets.