India keeper Rishabh Pant’s indifferent form coupled with Delhi’s leading batters failing to fire saw their unbeaten run being interrupted by Odisha, who carved out a huge 79-run victory in a fourth-round Group D match of the Vijay Hazare Trophy here on Wednesday.
With the national selectors set to announce the squad for the three-match ODI series against New Zealand in first week of January, it was the charismatic India keeper-batter and Delhi skipper Pant, who was the focus of attention.
But the feisty cricketer could score only 24 as the much-vaunted Delhi batting imploded, managing just 193 in 43.3 overs in the chase of an immensely gettable 272/8 scored by Odisha after being sent in to bat first.
Delhi’s innings have largely been built around one solid batting performance so far this season. But the absence of one on Wednesday cost them not just the match but also their top position on the points table, which could come back to haunt them as the tournament progresses.
Odisha went top of the table with 12 points and a healthy net run rate (NRR), while Delhi, despite being on the same number of points, slipped to fourth, with even Railways and Haryana getting ahead of them on better NRR.
It was also the first time so far this season that Delhi could not cross 200, something which looked so easy when Virat Kohli slammed a century against Andhra in the opener, and opener Priyansh Arya scored a fine 78 in the previous game against Saurashtra.
Pant, following scores of 5, 70, 22 could only manage 24 off 28 balls before he was dismissed by pacer Debabrata Pradhan (3/28), who along with young right-arm pacer Sambit Baral (3/34), hastened Delhi’s collapse.
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Odisha’s competitive total was built around veteran skipper Biplab Samantray, who scored a 74-ball-72 after they lost three wickets before their scored crossed the 100 mark.
Odisha’s lower rung made small but useful contributions to frustrate the Delhi bowling attack, led by India players Navdeep Saini and Nitish Rana, though off-spinner Hrithik Shokeen returned excellent figures of 4/27 in his 10 overs.
Delhi’s batters were off to an awful start losing openers Priyansh Arya and Sarthak Ranjan on single-dight scores to be two down for just six runs on the board. Pant’s dismissal saw Delhi teetering at 50/3 in only the 11th over, which quickly became 55/5.
A recovery from this stage was next to impossible but due credit to Harsh Tyagi (43) and Hrithik Shokeen (32) for delaying the inevitable with some gritty batting.
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Meanwhile, Saurashtra defeated Andhra by 74 runs with right-arm pacer Ankur Panwar taking a five-for and dismissing the rivals for 180 in the chase of 255.
Red hot Sarfaraz smashes 14 sixes in 75-ball-157 as Mumbai beat Goa by 87 runs
Sarfaraz Khan ended 2025 with a magnificent 75-ball 157 studded with 14 sixes as Mumbai inched closer towards knock-out with a 87-run victory over Goa in a group C game of the Vijay Hazare Trophy here on Wednesday.
Sarfaraz, who was also in prime form during the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, hit a 56-ball century, his third in List A as Mumbai posted an insurmountable 444 for 8 and then restricted Goa to 357 for 9.
This is Mumbai’s fourth successive win in the group league stage and one more win out of the remaining three games will almost ensure a smooth passage into the quarter-finals.
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On a day when Yashasvi Jaiswal (46) made his comeback after being laid low by gastritis during the opening week of the National One Day Championship, Sarfaraz owned the stage at the Jaipuria Vidyalaya ground where he made a mincemeat of the Goa attack with nine fours and 14 sixes.
A many as 10 out of his 14 sixes were hit of off-spinner Lalit Yadav (2/93 in 9 overs) and left-arm spinner Darshan Misal (3/98 in 9 overs). He hit Lalit for four sixes, while Misal was dispatched for half-a-dozen maximums.
Legendary Sachin Tendulkar’s son Arjun was hammered for 78 runs in eight overs.
While Sarfaraz was dismissed in the 42nd over when he was looking good for his maiden double hundred in List A cricket, Mumbai didn’t lose the tempo with more than 100 runs coming off the last 8 overs.
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Musheer Khan (60 off 66 balls), wicketkeeper Hardik Tamore (53 off 28 balls), Shams Mulani (22 off 15 balls), Tanush Kotian (23 not out off 12 balls) and skipper Shardul Thakur (27 off eight balls) wielded the long handle to good effect as the winners hammered 35 fours and 25 sixes.
In reply, Goa were never in the chase but Lalit Yadav (64), Abhinav Tejrana (100) and Deepraj Gaonkar (70) did bat well during the middle overs but it was never going to be enough.
Skipper Shardul Thakur (3/20 in 6 overs) once again showed his wares on a flat deck, while Yashasvi Jaiswal, bowling his leg-breaks, got smashed for 52 in just 3 overs but got a couple of wickets in the bargain.