Hardik Pandya's dazzling performance with both bat and ball powered Baroda to an emphatic 149-run victory against Chandigarh in the Vijay Hazare Trophy Elite List A match in Rajkot on Thursday.
Playing his second match of the tournament, Hardik slammed a blistering 75 from 31 balls, hitting nine sixes and two fours. He made a dashing start, smashing three sixes from his first five balls enroute to racing to his half-century from just 19 balls.
In his previous match, Hardik had blasted 133 from 92 balls, with 11 sixes and eight fours, in a losing cause against Vidarbha.
India's T20 wicketkeeper-batter Jitesh Sharma matched Hardik's attacking display with an entertaining 73 from 33 balls, with four sixes and eight fours.
Priyanshu Moila top-scored for Baroda with 113 from 106 balls, while Vishnu Solanki stroked 54 from 49 balls to power their team to a mammoth 391 all out in their 50 overs.
Hardik then excelled with the bat, taking 3/66 in his full quota of 10 overs as Chandigarh folded for 242 in 40 overs.
But Baroda suffered a heartbreak despite registering a dominant 149-run victory over Chandigarh, missing out on a quarterfinal berth on net run rate.
Gaikwad hits century
Maharashtra captain Ruturaj Gaikwad led from the front with a splendid century against Goa in the Vijay Hazare Trophy match in Jaipur.
Gaikwad came to Maharashtra's rescue with a brilliant 134 not out from 131 balls after they were struggling on 52/6 at one stage. Vicky Ostwal hit 53 as Maharashtra recovered to post 249/7 in their 50 overs.
Maharashtra were off to a horror start, losing three wickets in the first eight balls of the match. Interestingly, Prithvi Shaw was dismissed for one, falling to old friend Goa left-arm pacer Arjun Tendulkar in the second over.
Sarfaraz trumps Abhishek
India's T20 batting sensation Abhishek Sharma suffered a rare failure when he was dismissed for nine against Mumbai in Jaipur.
Punjab opener Abhishek made eight before he was caught by Shreyas Iyer off the bowling Sairaj Patil.
Anmolpreet Singh (57) and Ramandeep Singh (72) struck fifties but Mumbai managed to limit Punjab to 216 in 45.1 overs. Musheer Khan took 3/37 while Onkar Tarmale, Shivam Dube and Shashank Attarde bagged two wickets each.
Sarfaraz Khan continued his golden run with the bat in domestic cricket. He led Mumbai's smashing reply with the bat, hammering a 15-ball half-century. Mumbai were on course for victory as they raced to 138/2 in 14 overs, with Sarfaraz stroking 62 from 20 balls at a strike rate of 310, with five sixes and seven fours.
He had earlier smashed 157 from 75 balls against Goa, while hitting 55 against Uttarakhand.
Captain Shreyas Iyer made 45 from 34 balls before Mumbai suffered a late collapse as the likes of Suryakumar Yadav (15) and Shivam Dube (12) perished cheaply. They were bowled out for 215 in 26.2 overs to lose by a narrow one run margin.
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