Puducherry rout Sikkim by 10 wickets

Puducherry once again put up a dominating show to rout Sikkim by 10 wickets to maintain their slender lead atop the Plate Group standings in the Vijay Hazare Trophy domestic one-day cricket cricket tournament here on Tuesday.

Medium pacer Ashith Rajiv returned with career-best figures of 6/37, while left-arm spinner Sagar Udeshi bowled a tidy 3/7 as Sikkim folded for 112 in 36.3 overs after they opted to bat at the Tanush Academy Ground.

Puducherry cantered to a win without breaking a sweat with openers Paras Dogra and Arun Karthik chasing down the target in 11.4 overs to hand them their fourth victory to be on top of the standings with 20 points from six matches.

Dogra was at his aggressive best, slamming 10 fours and two sixes en route to his 41-ball 70 not out, while Arun Karthik played a perfect foil with 29-ball 41 not out (5x4, 2x6).

In another match at Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium, hosts Uttarakhand defeated Nagaland by seven wickets to occupy the second place, two points behind Puducherry in Plate Group from where one team will make it to the quarterfinals.

Stuart Binny waged a lone battle for Nagaland with a 108-ball 107 (7x4, 7x6) as wickets kept falling around him as they were bundled out for 174 in 44.5 overs after electing to bat.

Avneesh Sudha top-scored for Uttarakhand with a 71-ball 77 (5x4, 3x6) while number three Tanmay Srivastava remained unbeaten on 97-ball 54 (2x4) in a 122-run partnership to win the match in 36.2 overs.

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