Dhoni’s Jharkhand trumps Kashmir by 5 runs

Opener IR Jaggi provided a sound start as he notched up 54 off 72 deliveries after J & K sent Jharkhand in to bat after winning the toss. The much-anticipated innings of MS Dhoni, however, lasted only 9 runs, as he was sent packing by Waseem Raza. Kaushal Singh, who came down the order, steadied the innings for Jharkhand with 53 off 64 balls to take his team to a respectable total of 210.

J & K started out well with 40 runs for no loss in 12 overs but lost two wickets in the 13th over to land at 40-2. Opener SP Khajuria and Parvez Rasool then joined hands to put together a measured 104-run partnership before both departed in a span of four runs. After Ranji top-scorer Mithun Manhas departed next for just three runs, the J& K tail, slowly and inexplicably, batted out the 50 overs to finish at 205.

Brief Scores: Jharkhand 210 all out (IR Jaggi 53(72); Rohit Sharma 2/46) defeated J & K 205/7 (Parvez Rasool 63(67); S Nadeem 3/28) by 5 runs

Meanwhile, Abhinav Mukund of Tamil Nadu scored a run-a-ball century to power his team to a six-wicket victory over Assam in Hyderabad.

Earlier, man of the moment Ravichandran Ashwin, fresh off the Delhi Test, hauled in three wickets to restrict Assam to 210. J Kousik and M Mohammed contributed with two wickets each for Tamil Nadu. Jamaluddin Mohammad top-scored for Assam with a solid 59 after the Assam side was left tottering at 107-6 at one point.

Brief Scores: Tamil Nadu 214/4 (Abhinav Mukund 104(104), Vijay Shankar 42(53)) defeated Assam 210 all out (J S Mohammad 59(93); R Ashwin 3/31) by 6 wickets.

Mumbai trumped Punjab after a valiant effort by Yuvraj Singh (93) went in vain. Jay Bista’s cracking 92 off 87 balls was enough for Mumbai to win their first league match. Punjab had set a creditable target of 255 for Mumbai, but J G Bista’s innings along with a handy 44 by Abhishek Nayar helped them chase the target in 45.1 overs.

Brief Scores: Punjab 254 all out (Y Singh 93(93), Sagar Trivedi 3/21) lost to Mumbai 255/5 (J G Bista 92(87), A Nayar 44(52))

Other results:

Haryana 241/7 (Nitin Saini 52(54), Mohit Hooda 54(90)) defeated Kerala 232 all out (Sachin Baby 95(111); Jayant Yadav 3/21) by 9 runs.

Karnataka 228/9 (Vinay Kumar 50(48); Ashish Yadav 3/25) lost to Railways 232/9 (Asad Pathan 50(45); Vinay Kumar 4/45) by 1 wicket.

Andhra 273 all out (AG Pradeep 71(70); SS Majumder 2/45) defeated Tripura 215 all out (N N Sen Chowdhary 52(76); B Sudhakar 3/28) by 58 runs.

Odisha 226/9 (Arabind Singh 62(64); RD Thakur 3/44) defeated Vidarbha 223 all out (R Jangid 97(105); Alok Sahoo 5/39) by 3 runs.

Delhi 208/7 (Nitish Rana 62(86), P Negi 47(57)) defeated Baroda 177 all out (D J Hooda 50(76); Subodh Bhati 4/17) by 31 runs.

Himachal 243/8 (R Dhawan 67(64), P Dogra 41(55)) lost to Uttar Pradesh 247/3 (Eklavya Dwivedi 104(127)*, Rinku Singh 62(74)*) by 7 wickets.

Services 230/7 (Yashpal Singh 75(95); N B Singh 4/42) defeated Rajasthan 167 all out (Puneet Yadav 52(87); R Paliwal 2/10) by 63 runs.

Goa 235/9 (SS Bandekar 62(53), RJ Pinto 55(67); AB Dinda 3/40) lost to Bengal 238/4 (Shreevats Goswami 70(77), M Tiwary 62(48)) by 6 wickets.