Bengaluru, Nov 27 (PTI) Experienced Indian batsman Cheteshwar Pujara’s presence did not help Saurashtra as a gritty Tripura humbled the defending champions by 148 runs in their Group A match of the Vijay Hazare Trophy here on Monday.

Fifties by Bikram Kumar Das (59 off 76 balls), Sudip Chatterjee (61 off 93 balls) and Ganesh Satish (71 off 74 balls) fuelled Tripura to a challenging 258 for 8.

Veteran left-arm pacer Jaydev Unadkat led Saurashtra’s bowling with a five-wicket haul (5 for 35).

In reply, Saurashtra could only muster 110 before getting bowled out in 31.4 overs as part-timer Joydeb Deb grabbed a fifer (5 for 15).

They were in early trouble at 13 for three after Harvik Desai, Sheldon Jackson and Chirag Jani went back in quick succession with pacer Mura Singh inflicting the blows.

Pujara (24) and Arpit Vasavada (16) tried to revive Saurashtra’s innings with a 37-run stand for the fourth-wicket.

However, pacer Bikram Debnath trapped Pujara in front of the wicket to end the alliance and the hopes of Saurashtra to make a fist of the chase.

Warrier wrecks Bengal ============== Pacer Sandeep Warrier grabbed four wickets (4/23) as Tamil Nadu bundled out Bengal for a paltry 84 in a Group E match.

Tamil Nadu stumbled through rocks before reaching the target in 19.1 overs losing five wickets.

Padikkal powers Karnataka ================ Middle-order batter Devdutt Padikkal made a fluent 70 off 69 balls as Karnataka chased down 144 without much fuss to beat Delhi by six wickets in a Group C match.

Earlier, pacers Vidwath Kaverappa (3/25) and Vasuki Koushik (3/19) shared six wickets equally among themselves as Delhi were bowled out for 143.

Ayush Badoni singlehandedly led their batting with an unbeaten 100 off 106 balls that contained 12 fours and four sixes.

MP drub Punjab ========== In a Group E match, Punjab’s strong batting unit containing the likes of Abhishek Sharma, Prabhsimran Singh and Mandeep Singh suffered a light out, going down to Madhya Pradesh by 89 runs.

Akshat Raghuvanshi (62) and Rajat Patidar (31) guided MP to 177 before Kumar Kartikeya Singh (3/20) and Arshad Khan (3/9) bundled out Punjab for 89.

Brief scores: Group A: Tripura: 258/8 in 50 overs (Bikram Kumar Das 59, Sudip Chatterjee 61, Ganesh Satish 71; Jaydev Unadkat 5/35) beat Saurashtra: 110 all out in 31.4 overs (Cheteshwar Pujara 24; Joydeb Deb 5/15, Mura Singh 2/13) by 148 runs.

Mumbai: 324/5 in 50 overs (Jay Bista 144, Suved Parkar 57, PY Pawar 41) beat Railways: 298/9 in 50 overs (Upendra Yadav 102, Vivek Singh 95; Mohit Avasthi 4/53, Tushar Deshpande 3/62) by 26 runs.

Group B: Maharashtra: 255/8 in 40 overs (Om Bhosale 82, Ankit Bawane 82, NS Naik 47; Darshan Nalkhande 5/34) lost to Vidarbha: 261/5 in 39.1 overs (Atharva Taide 60, A. Mokhade 61, Harsh Dubey 56 not out, SB Dubey 62 not out; AN Kazi 3/29) by 5 wickets.

Group C: Delhi: 143 all out in 36.3 overs (Ayush Badoni 100, Vidwath Kaverappa 3/25, Vasuki Koushik 3/19, Vysakh Vijayakumar 2/27) lost to Karnataka: 144 for 4 in 27.3 overs (Devdutt Padikkal 70, Manish Pandey 28 not out) by 6 wickets.

Group D: Rajasthan: 211 all out in 48.3 overs (Abhijeet Tomar 50, Mahipal Lomror 33; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 4/30, Kartik Tyagi 3/38, Nitish Rana 3/59) beat Uttar Pradesh: 151 all out in 41.5 overs (Priyam Garg 46; Rahul Chahar 5/41) by 60 runs.

Group E: Bengal: 84 all out in 23.4 overs (Sandeep Warrier 4/23, T Natarajan 2/20) lost to Tamil Nadu: 85/5 in 19.1 overs (N Jagadeesan 30; Mohammad Kaif 2/12) by 5 wickets.

Madhya Pradesh: 177 all out in 26.5 overs (Akshat Raghuvanshi 62, Rajat Patidar 31; Siddharth Kaul 4/41) beat Punjab: 89 all out in 18.4 overs (Arshad Khan 3/9, Kumar Kartikeya Singh 3/20, Venkatesh Iyer 1/11) by 89 runs.

Source: PTI News