An unbeaten century from Paras Dogra (129 not out) and half-centuries from KB Arun Karthik and Ankit Sharma helped Puducherry beat Army by five wickets in a Group E match of the Vijay Hazare Trophy one-day tournament, here on Tuesday. Dogra hit eight fours and six sixes in his 121-ball unbeaten innings. He shared century partnerships with both Karthik and Ankit. Puducherry won the toss and invited the army to bat.
Ravi Chauhan, who won the army by playing a century against Mumbai, scored a century in the second match in a row. His 117-ball innings studded with nine fours and a six helped the team score 302 for six in 50 overs. For the army, Rahul Singh contributed 81 and captain Rajat Paliwal contributed 38 runs. Chasing the target, Puducherry lost the wicket of their skipper R Raghupathi (one run) in the second over itself.
The team also lost the second wicket in the eighth over on the score of 42 runs. After this, Dogra and Karthik (78) shared a 114-run partnership for the third wicket to bring Puducherry back into the match. Karthik hit 10 fours in his 73-ball innings. Dogra then found a good partner in Ankit (54 off 50 balls). Both shared a 103-run partnership for the sixth wicket to take the match away from the army.
In the other match of the day, Maharashtra defeated Bengal by three wickets on the back of Azim Qazi’s 106 off 97 balls studded with seven fours and four sixes. Sandeep Kumar Gharami’s 127 off 132 balls helped Bengal to 279 for six but Maharashtra won the match till the last ball by scoring 282 for seven. In the other group match, Railways defeated Mizoram by a huge margin of 254 runs.
