Gill smashes ton in Punjab’s victory

Alur (Karnataka), February 11 

A superb ton by Test batsman KL Rahul (107) went in vain as Karnataka went down to Punjab by four runs in the Vijay Hazare Trophy tournament here today. In other matches of the day, Haryana lost to Railways by 51 runs, while J&K beat Services by five wickets.

In the Karnataka-Punjab match, Punjab rode on Under-19 World Cup star Shubman Gill’s unbeaten 123 to put up 269/3 in 42 overs. The match had to be reduced to a 42-overs-a-side affair owing to a wet outfield. The right-hander smashed eight fours and six sixes in his 122-ball innings and put on 125 runs for the second wicket with Mandeep Singh (64).

In reply, the home side looked in control as long the stylish Rahul was at the crease. He was also involved in a 100-run partnership with Pavan Deshpande (53). However, the exit of Deshpande pegged Karnataka back. Rahul fell when the team needed just 21 runs more, but rest of the batsmen failed to get the hosts home.

Despite the defeat, Karnataka continue to top the table with 10 points from four games, while Railways, Punjab, Odisha and Baroda have eight points each. Railways, Odisha and Baroda have played three games while Karnataka and Punjab have played four matches each.

Brief scores: Punjab 269/3  in 42 overs (Shubman Gill 123*, Mandeep Singh 64); Karnataka 264/9 (KL Rahul 107, Pavan Deshpande 53; Siddarth Kaul 3/47).

Railways 272/7 in 50 overs (Mrunal Devdhar 68, Saurabh Wakaskar 58, Arindam Ghosh 55; HV Patel 3/62); Haryana 221 all out in 45.1 overs (CK Bishnoi 79, RP Sharma 50; Ankit Yadav 4/36).

Services 296/6 in 50 overs (Nakul Verma 125, Rahul Singh 71, Diwesh Pathania 48*); Jammu & Kashmir 297/5 in 49 overs (Shubham Khajuria 102, Ahmed Bandy 94, Ian Dev Singh 48)