Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Day 3 Roundup: Pujara smashes 81 to set up Saurashtra win; Karnataka lose

Indian Test batsman Cheteshwar Pujara showed that he could bat in limited over cricket too, after his blistering knock of 81 off 55 balls set up Saurashtra's win over Jammu & Kashmir in their group match in Kochi on Monday. With his brilliant match-winning knock, Pujara would be sending a strong message to selectors ahead of the T20 World Cup at home.

Saurashtra were put into bat after losing the toss and they made J&K pay for it as Pujara launched into attack mode right from the start. His cameo knock included 5 fours and 5 big sixes. He was supported well by Chirag Jani who hit 38 off 19 balls, to push Saurashtra to 157/7.

J&K however, just did not get going as they lost wickets at regular intervals and eventually folded to 84 all out, 3 runs more than Pujara's score. Dharmendrasinh Jadeja was the pick of the bowler for Saurashtra with his spell of 3/19.

Brief Scores: Saurashtra 157/7 (20) (Pujara 81, Jani 38; Mudhasir 2/15) beat Jammu& Kashmir 84-all out (17.1) (D. Jadeja 3/19) by 73 runs.

Meanwhile, Karnataka lost to Uttar Pradesh despite a brave batting effort in Cuttack. Winning the toss and choosing to bat first, they put up 160/6 on board, mainly due to 22-year-old Mohammad Taha’s fighting 45 off 40 balls at the top of the order. However, UP hardly broke a sweat and comfortably overhauled the target with 5 balls to spare.

Brief Scores: Karnataka 160/6 (20) (Taha 45; Piyush Chawla 2/24) lost to Uttar Pradesh 161/5 (19.1) (Prashant Gupta 48, Dwivedi 29*) by 5 wickets.

Virender Sehwag-captained Haryana side lost another match in the tournament as they went down to Vidarbha by 8 wickets in Nagpur. Batting first after winning the toss, Haryana just managed to score 136/8, despite a valiant 65 from Mohit Hooda. In reply, Vidarbha romped home with 8 wickets in hand and 3 balls to spare.

Brief Scores: Haryana 136/8 (20) (Hooda 65; Jangid 3/13) lost to Vidarbha 140/2 (19.3) (Himanshu Joshi 61*) by 8 wickets.

Vijay Hazare Trophy winners Gujarat scored a narrow 3-wicket victory over Hyderabad in Nagpur. Chasing the modest total of 131, Gujarat lost wickets regularly but, in the end, managed to hit the winning runs, with 3 balls to spare. Captain Parthiv Patel scored 70 off just 40 balls.

Brief Scores: Gujarat 134/7 (19.3) (Parthiv Patel 70; B.Sandeep 3/14) beat Hyderabad 131/7 (20) (Vihari 32; RP Singh 3/15) by 3 wickets.

Biplab Samantray's fine century went in vain as Odisha lost their match to Maharashtra by 4 wickets, in Cuttack. Odisha, batting first, scored 183/4 at the end of 20 overs. But the Maharashtra middle order stepped up to the occasion, in pushing them home. Ankit Bawne played a cameo knock scoring 52 off 26 balls to hit the winning runs.

Brief Scores: Odisha 183/4 (20) (Samantray 102(58b), Poddar 63) lost to Maharashtra 184/6 (20) (Bawne 52*) by 4 wickets.Other Results on Day 3:

Mumbai 128/2 (18.1) (Tare 49*, Herwadkar 39) beat Services 127/7 (20) (Yashpal 40*) by 8 wickets.

Goa 132/7 (20) (Asnodkar 24, Bandekar 24) lost to Assam 133/6 (19.3) (P.Das 44, Sinha 18*) by 4 wickets.

Andhra 115 (19.4) (Shinde 28; Mali 4/26) lost to Railways 122/9 (20) (Pandey 28, Ahmed 26) by 7 runs.

Rajasthan 120/9 (20) (Chandrapal Singh 40, Yagnik 30; Vikash 4/12) lost to Jharkhand 121/2 (19.5) (Tiwary 61*, Kumar 38*) by 8 wickets.

Madhya Pradesh 156/6 (20) (Ojha 48, Sahani 36; Sangwan 3/22) lost to Delhi 160/6(19.5) (Gambhir 38, Milind 36) by 4 wickets.

Bengal 154/6 (20) (Chandila 70; Jaiswal 4/26) beat Himachal Pradesh 152/3 (20) (Chopra 74*, Dogra 52) by 2 runs.

Tripura 111 (19.5) (Bose 35; Thampi 4/15) lost to Kerala 113/2 (16.1) (Samson 56*, Prem 40) by 8 wickets.