Vijay Hazare Trophy 2023 | Bowlers set up Kerala’s win over Pondicherry; Tripura beats Mumbai

Kerala beats Pondicherry in Vijay Hazare Trophy; Mumbai loses to Tripura. Kerala on top of Group A with 20 points, Mumbai tied with them. Akhil Scaria & Sijomon Joseph take 3 wickets each for Kerala. Fabid Ahmed & Akash Kargave top score for Pondicherry. Sachin Baby & Sanju Samson help Kerala win. Murasingh stars with bat & ball for Tripura.

 Kerala kept up its winning momentum in the 2023-24 Vijay Hazare Trophy with a six-wicket win over Pondicherry at the Alur Cricket Stadium here on Sunday.

Asked to bat first, Pondicherry could accumulate just 116, with medium pacer Akhil Scaria and left-arm spinner Sijomon Joseph snaring three wickets each (3/15 and 3/2 respectively). But for captain Fabid Ahmed (44, 49b, 3x4, 2x6) and opener Akash Kargave (25, 27b, 6x4), not one Pondicherry batter crossed 15.

In reply, Kerala knocked off the runs in under 20 overs, with Sachin Baby (25 n.o., 38b, 4x4) and Sanju Samson (35 n.o., 13b, 4x4, 3x6) the top scorers.

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Kerala is now tied on points with Mumbai at the top of Group A (20 points) after the latter suffered a 53-run defeat (VJD) method to Tripura at the Kini Sports Arena Ground.

Wriddhiman Saha’s band of merrymakers, who earlier embarrassed defending champion Saurashtra, made 288 for five after being asked to make first use of the pitch.

There were half-centuries from Bikram Kumar Das (70, 78b, 8x4, 1x6), Sudip Chatterjee (60, 78b, 6x4), Ganesh Satish (50, 69b, 4x4) and Manisankar Murasingh (55 n.o., 26b, 5x4, 3x6) as the Mumbai pace attack comprising Shardul Thakur, Tushar Deshpande and Mohit Avasthi conceded 167 runs from 28 overs.