Jharkhand’s Utkarsh Singh in action.
| Photo Credit: VIJAY SONEJI
An imperious batting display fetched Jharkhand its third consecutive win and handed Tamil Nadu a crushing nine-wicket defeat in the Vijay Hazare Elite Group A match at the Narendra Modi Stadium here on Wednesday.
Openers Utkarsh Singh (123 n.o., 120b, 13×4, 3×6) and Shikhar Mohan (90, 108b, 9×4) scripted the win with their 201-run partnership as Jharkhand effortlessly chased down the target of 244 with four overs to spare. The match was reduced to 45 overs due to a wet outfield and dew.
Medium-pacer Shubham Kumar exploited the favourable conditions to dismiss the in-form N. Jagadeesan for a duckas he feathered a catch to wicketkeeper Kumar Khushagra.
Opener S.R. Athish smashed three sixes in his 30-ball 33, but got out against the run of play. The trend continued as Pradosh Ranjan Paul (49, 64b 8×4) and B. Indrajith (48, 61b, 2×4) got out playing rash strokes at the wrong time.
Tamil Nadu lost wickets regularly and the final assault never camefrom the designated hard-hitters. Jharkhand medium-pacers Rajan Deep (one for 35), Shubham (four for 53) and Sushant Mishra (two for 51) mixed it up well as Tamil Nadu was bowled out for 243.
The pitch eased out in the second session and Tamil Nadu’s hopes for an early breakthrough went up in smoke in the second over. Mohammed Ali, running in from third man, failed to latch on to miscued pull from Shikar off Govinth Ganesh. The batter, who was on three then, made Tamil Nadu pay dearly for the mistake as he along with Utkarsh put the Tamil Nadu attack to sword with rasping cuts, pulls and flowing drives. Utkarsh reached the century, but Shikar missed out on the landmark as he was out top edging a sweep off Pradosh.
Eden Apple Tom smashed an 18-ball unbeaten 40 (1×4, 5×6) as Kerala pulled off a heist against Rajasthan. Chasing a stiff target of 344, Kerala needed 19 from the final over bowled by Akash Singh. Eden nailed the win with his third six of the over as Kerala won by two wickets.
B. Aparajith’s century (126, 116b, 12×4, 4×6) kept Kerala in the hunt after Rajasthan posted 343 for seven largely through Karan Lamba’s unbeaten 119 (131b, 6×4, 4×6).
The scores: Elite Group A (Ahmedabad): Tamil Nadu 243 in 45 overs (Pradosh Ranjan Paul 49, B. Indrajith 48, Shubham Kumar 4/53) lost to Jharkhand 244/1 in 41 overs (Shikar Mohan 90, Utkarsh Singh 123).
Rajasthan 343/7 in 50 overs (Karan Lamba 119 n.o., Deepak Hooda 86) lost to Kerala 348/8 in 50 overs (Krishna Prasad 53, B. Aparajith 126, Eden Apple Tom 40 n.o.).
Karnataka 364/4 in 50 overs (Mayank Agarwal 132, Devdutt Padikkal 113, Karun Nair 62 n.o.) bt Pondicherry 296 in 50 overs (Neyan Kangayan 68, Jayant Yadav 54).
Tripura 286/7 in 50 overs (Sridam Paul 52, Vijay Shankar 91,Venkatesh Iyer 4/44) lost to Madhya Pradesh 287/6 in 44 overs (Yash Dubey 105, Shubham Sharma 71).
Published – December 31, 2025 08:40 pm IST
