Cuttack: Continuing his dominant form with the willow, Delhi skipper Rishabh Pant narrowly missed a century but that was more than enough to help his side outclass Tripura by 70 runs in a Group B match of the Vijay Hazare Trophy at the Barabati Stadium here on Friday.
The promising wicketkeeper-batsman scored a scintillating 99 off 72 balls and was ably supported by Dhruv Shorey (74) and Milind Kumar (72 not out) to help Delhi post a mammoth 356/5 after being sent in to bat. In reply, skipper Yashpal Singh scored a brilliant 115, but it went in vain as Tripura were restricted to 286/8. In another Group B match, Uttar Pradesh rode on a magnificent opening stand of 249 runs from skipper Prashant Gupta (129) and Shivam Chaudhary (116) to thrash Maharashtra by a massive 104 runs. The outcome snapped Maharashtra's unbeaten run in the competition.
Electing to bat after winning the toss, Uttar Pradesh posted a massive 370/5 and later leg-spinner Piyush Chawla returned with an electrifying spell of 5/50 from 7.5 overs to bundle Maharashtra for 266 in 38.5 overs at the DRIEMS Ground here.
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu defeated Kerala by six wickets at the KIIT Stadium in Bhubaneswar to move to second on the Group B points table, tied with Maharashtra on 16 points.
Winning the toss and electing to bat, Sanju Samson struck a 89-ball 84 to help Kerala score 230/7 before veteran stumper Dinesh Karthik (88) and promising bat Baba Aparajith (74) helped Tamil Nadu overhaul the target in just 39.2 overs.
In Group C, skipper Parthiv Patel guided Gujarat to a massive 182-run win over Andhra with a handsome century at the Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering Ground in Chennai.
Continuing their unbeaten run, Bengal consolidated their position at the top of Group C, as opener Abhimanyu Easwaran's brilliant 127 helped the side thrash Mumbai by 96 runs at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
In another tie, skipper Naman Ojha's belligerent 87-ball 105 helped Madhya Pradesh trounce Goa by seven wickets at the Guru Nanak College Ground in the southern metro.
In Group A, middle order batsman Gurkeerat Singh Mann led Punjab to a clinical five-wicket win, with a brisk 91 off 86 balls in their chase of 197 after Haryana had reduced them to 75/4 at the Palam Ground in Delhi. Earlier, Harbhajan Singh's figures of 4/33 helped Punjab restrict Haryana to 196 in the penultimate over.
At the Ferozshah Kotla, Assam rode on a disciplined all-round show to beat the Railways by four wickets in a Group A encounter while at the Karnail Singh Stadium in then capital, Akshay Karnewar, an ambidextrous bowler, led Vidarbha to a comfortable seven-wicket rout of Odisha with figures of 4/21 from his 10 overs.
In Group D, former India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led Jharkhand suffered a 21-run loss to Hyderabad at the Jadavpur University Ground in Kolkata. Hyderabad survived Saurabh Tiwary's counter-attacking hundred -- 102 off 104 balls -- to defend 203.
At the Eden Gardens, Saurashtra thrashed Chhattisgarh by 92 runs to register their first win in five matches of the season. Sheldon Jackson, who became only the second Indian after Mohinder Amarnath in List A matches, to be given out obstructing the field for 73, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja (50), and Chirag Jani (58) underpinned Saurashtra's win.
In another match of the group at the Bengal Cricket Academy Ground in Kalyani, seamer Prasidh Krishna grabbed 4/15 to set up Karnataka's seven-wicket win against Jammu and Kashmir. This is Karnataka's fourth victory in as many matches in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy.
