Saurashtra beat Karnataka to reach Vijay Hazare semis

VISAKHAPATNAM, April 2: Jaydev Shah slammed an 80 ball 100 as Saurashtra spanked Karnataka by seven wickets to sail into the semifinals of the Vijay Hazare trophy on Wednesday.
After restricting Karnataka to 234 in 50 overs, a dominant Saurashtra cruised to the target in 46.2 overs losing just three wickets.
Jaydev, son of BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah, caned the Karnataka bowlers en route to a blistering century that included 10 hits to the fence besides five sixes.
Openers Bharath Chipli (14) and Robin Uthappa (50, 69b, 3x4) began well for Karnataka before Sandip Maniar removed the former to draw the first blood.
Uthappa and Manish Pandey (45, 53b, 3x4, 1x6) then forged a 74-run stand for the second wicket but once Uthappa departed, Karnataka fumbled and even C Raghu's gritty 41 did not prove enough in the end.
Balkrishna Jadeja was the pick of the Saurashtra bowlers, claiming 3 for 68, while Rakesh Dhruv got 2 for 31.
Chasing the target, Saurashtra never looked in trouble with openers Chirag Pathak (62, 95b, 8x4) and Sagar Jogyani (38) contributing 87 runs before Raghu removed Jogyani.
NC Aiyappa managed to make another dent by removing Pathak after a well-compiled half century but new man in Jaydev looked in ominous form and by the time Manish caught him off Akhil, Saurashtra had pocketed the match.
Brief score: Karnataka: 234 for 9 in 50 overs (Robin Uthappa 50, Manish Pandey 45, C Raghu 41; Balkrishna Jadeja 3-68, Rakesh Dhruv 2-31).
Saurashtra: 235 for 3 in 46.2 overs (Jaydev Shah 100, Chirag Pathak 62; NC Aiyappa 1-29, B AKhil 1-46).