Karnataka beat Railways by 16 runs to qualify for the knockout phase of the Vijay Hazare Trophy from Group A alongside table toppers Baroda on Friday.
Mayank Agarwal continued his good form with a fine 89 and shared a 132-run fourth-wicket partnership with Pavan Deshpande (65) as Karnataka were bowled out for 257. The home team slid from 182/4 to be all out in 49th after the fall of Deshpande.
In response, Railways were in trouble straightaway as both the openers failed to open their account and the fall of a further four wickets left them tottering at 54/6.
When a quick end looked possible, Anureet Singh (59), Ankit Yadav (51) and Avinash Yadav (40) launched a counter-attack.
Anureet and Ankit were involved in a 91-run stand for the seventh wicket to revive Railways’ hopes. However, young medium-pacer M Prasidh took three wickets to hasten a collapse and the visitors were all out for 241.
In the other two games played in the group, Odisha trounced Haryana by nine wickets and Baroda rode on Aditya Waghmode’s superb knock of 148 to post a massive 279-run win over Assam. Waghmode and Kedar Devdhar (61) powered Baroda to 378/7 before they bundled out Assam for 99 in 30 overs.
