Rajat Paliwal scored his second successive century and was involved in a 195-run partnership with skipper Yashpal Singh, which guided minnows Services into the quarter-finals of the Vijay Hazare Trophy with a one-wicket win over Vidarbha in an exciting finish here on Monday.
Services will meet Jharkhand in the quarter-final match at the JU (2nd campus ground). Batting first, Vidarbha scored 283 for six with skipper Shalabh Srivastava scoring an 89-ball 84 and Urvesh Patel contributing 59. In reply, Services won off the last delivery of the match, scoring 286 for nine. Paliwal, after his 105 against Delhi, smashed 112 off only 99 deliveries with 11 fours and a six, while Yashpal proved to be an able ally, scoring 81 off 100 balls with eight boundaries.
Brief Scores: Vidarbha 283/6 in 50 overs (Shalabh Srivastava 84, Urvesh Patel 59, Abhishek Sakuja 2/43) beat Services: 286/9 in 50 overs (Rajat Paliwal 112, Yashpal Singh 81, Umesh Yadav 3/54). Services won by one wicket.
Railways win handsomely
Railways put up an all-round performance to down Baroda by 93 runs and set up a quarterfinal clash with Punjab in the other match.
For Railways Chanderpal Saini put up a fine show as the No 8 batsman’s unbeaten 45 from 60 balls, (4x4) in a 64-run partnership with Karn Sharma (41 from 36 balls; 2x4, 1x6), propelled his side to 230/9 after they were reduced to 126/6 in the 31st over.
Brief Scores: Railways: 230/9; 50 overs (Chanderpal Saini 45 not out, Amit Paunikar 42; Vishwanath Parmar 4/50, Munaf Patel 2/27, lukman Meriwala 2/52) beat Baroda: 137; 43.3 overs (Irfan Pathan 38; Amit Mishra 3/22) by 93 runs.