Jaipur: Skipper Shreyas Iyer’s fluent 116 and an impressive show by India speedster Shardul Thakur powered Mumbai to a 67-run win over Rajasthan in an Elite Group D game of the Vijay Hazare Trophy here on Saturday.
This was Mumbai’s fourth successive win, having earlier defeated Delhi, Maharashtra and Puducherry. Opting to bat at the KL Saini stadium, Mumbai rode on Iyer’s 103-ball knock to post a competitive 317/7. The elegant right-handed batsman led from the front before his bowlers bundled out the opposition for 250 with Thakur (4/50) doing the bulk of the damage.
Mumbai openers – young Yashasvi Jaiswal (38) and Prithvi Shaw (36) – gave the domestic giants a strong start, adding 71 for the first wicket. But Rajasthan pegged back Mumbai by removing both the openers in quick succession as they slipped to 83/2. Iyer anchored the innings before toying with the Rajasthan attack, scoring his second century of the tournament with the help of 11 fours and three sixes.
He found able partners in Sarfaraz Khan (30) and Suryakumar Yadav (29), who played their roles to perfection. Iyer added 96 for the third wicket with Sarfaraz and then forged a 56-run stand with Suryakumar for the fourth wicket to put the hosts on the back foot.
After Iyer was cleaned up in the 46th over by Ravi Bishnoi, all-rounder Akash Parkar made an unbeaten 24 off 15 balls, to prop up Mumbai. For Rajasthan, left-arm spinner Shubham Sharma (3/59) did the bulk of the damage.
Brief Scores (Round (IV)
Group E: Saurashtra 388/7 in 50 overs (Prerak Mankad 174, Vishvaraj Jadeja 50; JaskaranSingh 4/60) bt Chandigarh 326/7 in 50 overs (Arslan Khan 61, Ankit Kaushik 54, Manan Vohra 50)
Services 287/5 in 50 overs (Rajat Paliwasl 78, Shivam Tiwari 74) bt Haryana 175 in 43.3 overs
Bengal 368/4 in 50 overs (Abhimanyu Easwaran 99, A Majumdar 92 no, Ritwik Roy 55) bt Jammu & Kashmir 286 in 45.3 overs (Parvez Rasool 50; Arnab Nandi 4/46)
Group D: Puducherry 227/9 in 50 overs (Sheldon Jackson 104, Sagar Trivedi 51; Rishi Dhawan 4/44) bt Himachal Pradesh 123 in 34.5 overs (Sagar Udeshi 4/35)
Mumbai 317/7 in 50 overs (Shreyas Iyer 116; Shubham Sharma 3/59) bt Rajasthan 250 in 42.2 overs (Mahipal Lomror 76; Shardul Thakur 4/50, Dhawal Kulkarni 3/26)
Maharashtra 328/7 in 50 overs (Azim Kazi 91, Kedar Jadhav 86; Lalit Yadav 3/69) lost to Delhi 330/7 in 49.2 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 153, Dhruv Shorey 61; Satyajeet Bachhav 3/68)
Plate: Nagaland 257/9 in 50 overs (Hem Chetri 82, Shrikanth Mundhe 52) bt Manipur 240/9 in 50 overs (Narisingh Yadav 62, Nitesh Sedia 50; Stuart Binny 3/32)
Sikkim 245 in 50 overs (Robin Bist 120, Varun Sood 50; Pritam Das 5/34) lost to Assam 249/6 in 47.5 overs (Kunal Saikia 69, Saahil Jain 61 no, Denish Das 53)
Mizoram 117 in 38.3 overs ( Taruwar Kohli 62; Dikshanshu Negi 6/21) lost to Uttarakhand 118/2 in 10.5 overs (Kunal Chandela 58)
Arunachal Pradesh 153 in 50 overs (Chengkam Sangma 3/21) lost to Meghalaya 157/2 in 28.5 overs (Rohit Shah 70 no)