Vijay Hazare Trophy: Ruturaj Gaikwad smashes second century in two days, Venkatesh Iyer puts up all-round show

Ruturaj Gaikwad continued to make a strong claim for a spot in the Indian ODI team, bagging his second century in two days – an unbeaten 154 off 143 on this occasion – to take his tournament tally to 290 runs in two innings. Gaikwad hit 14 fours and five sixes, while putting on an opening stand of 120 with Yash Nahar as Maharashtra chased down 276 against Chhattisgarh.

Twenty-one-year-old Atharva Taide scored his second List A century for Vidarbha, a mammoth unbeaten 164 off 123 balls, that helped Vidarbha beat Andhra comprehensively with eight wickets in hand and 8.2 overs to spare. The left-hand opener, who has played for India U-19, hit 15 fours and five sixes, and played a domineering knock in an innings where no one else got past 50. Vidarbha were chasing 288.

Nineteen-year-old left-handed batter Tilak Varma made his third List A hundred in 13 innings for Hyderabad, as they beat Delhi by 79 runs at Mohali. Varma’s built a reputation for big-hitting in a budding career, and that was evident against Delhi as he hit seven fours and eight sixes during a 123-ball 139 that helped Hyderabad post 325. He now averages 62.50, with a strike rate of 101.21 after 13 List A innings.

Tamil Nadu’s left-arm spinners, M Siddharth and R Sai Kishore shared seven wickets between them as Karnataka collapsed from 103 for 3 to 122 all out and lost by eight wickets in Trivandrum. Manish Pandey top-scored with 40, but it was his wicket that triggered the collapse. Siddharth took career-best figures of 4 for 23 in 9 overs and accounted for the wickets of Pandey and Karun Nair as Tamil Nadu extended their dominance over Karnataka this season.

Rajasthan went top of Group E with an 84-run win over Goa, thanks to left-arm spinner Shubham Sharma‘s maiden five-wicket haul. Shubham took 5 for 12 in 9.3 overs, bowling alongside legspinner Ravi Bishnoi who finished with 2 for 47 from his full quota. Rajasthan were defending 257

Venkatesh Iyer scored 112 off 84 balls as Madhya Pradesh scored 329 for 9 against Kerala, before picking up 3 for 55 as Kerala fell short by 40 runs. Iyer batted at No. 4 and scored seven fours and four sixes, following on from Wednesday when he batted at No. 6 and bowled ten overs and got the wicket of Gaikwad against Maharashtra. Sanju Samson, captaining Kerala, was dismissed for 18 off 22.

Suryakumar Yadav made a nine-ball 14 coming in at No. 4 for Mumbai against Baroda. In a rain-curtailed match, Suryakumar’s innings helped Mumbai get past their VJD target with ease, and they won by 12 runs when the rain stopped their chase of 210 short against Baroda.

On a day headlined by left-arm spinners, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja also picked up career-best figures of 4 for 14, as Saurashtra bowled Haryana out for 127 before beating them by five wickets to top Group C after two matches. For Haryana, Yuzvendra Chahal took 2 for 39 in 8.1 overs; he had taken 3 for 42 against Hyderabad on Wednesday. Harshal Patel, meanwhile, scored a duck batting at No. 6 and took 1 for 24.