Bengaluru: Skipper Shreyas Iyer and Surya Kumar Yadav hit responsible fifties as defending champions Mumbai registered their first win in the Vijay Hazare Trophy after defeating Saurashtra by five wickets here.
After restricting Saurashtra to 245/9 in their Elite Group A match at the Alur cricket stadium III near here, Mumbai romped home with two overs to spare courtesy Iyer's gritty 75 and Surya's formidable unbeaten 85. Asked to bat first, Saurashtra opener Harvik Desai (0) was trapped in front of the wicket by experienced pacer Dhawal Kulkarni.
Then Sheldon Jackson (35) and one-down Samarth Vyas (34) tried to resurrect the innings with their 78-run stand for the second wicket. But as the duo was poised for a big score, spinner Shams Mulani sent them back in quick succession as Saurashtra were in a spot of bother at 3-79.
Arpit Vasavada showed some composure and made a gritty 59 off 75 balls, striking five fours, to rebuild the Saurashtra innings. After Vasavada fell, it was due to an unbeaten 40 by number 7 batsman Chirag Jani, that Saurashtra went past the 240-run mark.
Brief Scores:
Saurashtra 245/9 (A V Vasavada 59, Chirag Jani 40 not out; Shardul Thakur 3-36) lost to Mumbai 248/5 (Surya Kumar Yadav 85 not out, Shreyas Iyer 73, Shubham Ranjane 45 not out; Kushang Patel 2-13) by 5 wickets. Mumbai 4 points, Saurashtra 0 points. Hyderabad 198/9 (Ambati Rayudu 87 not out, C V Milind 36; Ronit More 2-31) beat Karnataka 177 all out (Devdutt Paddikal 60, Manish Pandey 48; B Sandeep 4-35) by 21 runs. Hyderabad 4 points, Karnataka 0 points.
