Manoj Tiwari’s unbeaten 104 helped Bengal beat Himachal Pradesh by six wickets on Saturday and ensured that Delhi qualified for the Vijay Hazare quarter-finals to be played in the national capital from February 21.
Three Group B teams – Maharashtra, Kerala and Himachal Pradesh – were locked on 14 points from five games and had a chance of overhauling Delhi’s tally of 16 points since they were not playing in the final round.
While the game between Maharashtra and Kerala was a virtual knock out game, Himachal Pradesh had to beat Bengal to advance, reported PTI.
Himachal Pradesh would have though that they had a good chance of achieving their goal when they set Bengal a target of 267 runs. But Tiwari (104 not out) and Abhimanyu Easwaran (90) stitched a partnership of 131 runs for the third wicket to help their team chase down the target in 48 overs and clear the way for Delhi.
In another clash at Bilaspur, Maharashtra crushed Kerala by 98 runs to make it to the last eight.
Batting first, Maharashtra scored 273 in 37 overs with Naushad Sheikh smashing 76. In reply, Kerala were all out for 175 with Sanju Samson scoring 46. Pacer Shrikant Mundhe grabbed 5 for 26.
Brief Scores
Himachal Pradesh 266/8 (Priyanshu Khanduri 74, Alok Pratap Singh 4/53) lost to Bengal 266/4 in 48 overs (Manoj Tiwary 104 no, Abhimanyu Easwaran 90) by 6 wickets.
Maharashtra 273/8 in 37 overs (naushad Sheikh 76, Ankit Bawne 43) beat Kerala 175 in 29.2 overs (Sanju Samson 46) by 98 runs.
UP 357/8 in 50 overs (Akshdeep Nath 87, Aryan Juyal 69, Rinku Singh 91) beat Tripura 296/9 in 50 overs (Yashpal Singh 110, J Banik 50) by 61 runs.