Himachal humble Delhi

Delhi’s top-order flopped as they lost their first wicket after scoring just one in the second over with Shikhar Dhawan out for a duck. They were reduced to 58 for four by 18th over. Rajat Bhatia (35) and Puneet Mehra (29) began the repair work with a 65-run stand from 112 balls for the fifth wicket. But it was Puneet and Joginder who were responsible for taking their team to a respectable score with quick half-centuries.

Puneet needed 40 balls for his 51,which he made with the help of six fours and a six while Joginder was even quicker by scoring his 52 from 36 balls which had five fours and two sixes. Captain Virat Kohli contributed a 33-ball 32. Himachal chased down the target of 235 with 17 balls to spare. Besides Dogra,Vinit Indulkar also remained unbeaten on a run-a-ball 28 which was studded with three fours.

In other North zone matches,Punjab defeated Jammu & Kashmir by eight wickets. Chasing a modest 170,skipper Karan Goel scored a century while Udal Kaul scored 57 as Punjab won with 97 balls remaining. Haryana maintained their position at the top of the table with a narrow five-run win over Services in Rohtak. Rahul Dewan (76) and Sachin Rana (45) were the principal scorers.

Jaffer scores ton

Wasim Jaffer scored a century (109) while Rohit Sharma missed his by four runs in Mumbai’s crushing 131-run win against Maharashtra. Sharma hit five fours and six sixes during his 78-ball stay,while Jaffer smashed eight boundaries during his 128-ball 109 as Mumbai scored a 308 for 5.

Twin fifties from Sangram Atitkar and Kedar Jadhav were not enough as Maharashtra fell to Ramesh Powar (4 for 44) and Salvi (3 for 21). Meanwhile,Ravindra Jadeja helped Saurashtra thrash Baroda by seven wickets,picking up four wickets with his left-arm spin,as Baroda were dismissed for 129 in 40.2 overs. Cheteshwar Pujara scored 54 in reply as Saurashtra remained unbeaten in the group.

Goswami shapes Bengal win

In the East Zone games,Bengal defeated Assam by seven wickets in a high scoring match. Dhiraj Jadhav scored 148 off 150 balls,comprising 15 fours as Assam scored 299 in their quota of 50overs. Ashok Dinda remained the most successful bowler with 3 for 57. In reply,Sreevats Goswami hit a breezy 133 off 114 balls,smashing 18 fours and three sixes,Sourav Ganguly scored 64 while Abhishek Jhunjhunwala remained unbeaten on 83 as Bengal chased with more than seven overs to go.

In another match,Orissa edged out Jharkhand by 11 runs at the Barabati Stadium. Wicketkeeper-captain Haladhar Das scored 88 while Rashmi Das scored a hurricane 104 to set a target of 279. Ishank Jaggi kept Jharkhand’s hopes alive with 109 from 111 balls but Jharkhand could manage only 267.

TN,Karnataka qualify

Tamil Nadu beat Karnataka but both qualified for the knock-out stage. Put in to bat,Tamil Nadu scored 316 in 50 overs. The visitors,after cruising along towards victory thanks to a 104-ball 117 (12×4,2×6) by Robin Uthappa and Manish Pandey’s 56-ball 57 (6×4,1×6) lost four wickets for 19 runs in 4.7 overs to end up at 314 for 9 in 50 overs.

In the other two inconsequential matches,Goa and Kerala scored their second wins in four matches each,defeating Hyderabad and Andhra Pradesh respectively.

In Central Zone games,Naman Ojha scored a century to help Madhya Pradesh remain unbeaten in their group and defeat Rajasthan while Uttar Pradesh scored a thumping nine-wicket win against Vidarbha with Sudeep Tyagi picking up five wickets.