Record-breaking Samson steals the spotlight

Sanju Samson scored the highest-ever individual score in Vijay Hazare Trophy history with a mind-boggling 212 (129 balls) not out in Kerala’s 104-run win in their Group A contest against Goa here at the Alur ground on Saturday.

Samson overhauled the record set by Karn Veer Kaushal last season in the same competition when the Uttarakhand man scored 202 against Sikkim. Samson smashed 21 fours and 10 sixes -- 144 runs in boundaries alone --en route his maiden List-A century.

Samson, who arrived at the crease after Robin Uthappa was given out for obstructing the field, joined hands with Sachin Baby (127) to add 338 runs for the third wicket - the highest for the position in List-A history.

In response to Kerala’s 377/3, Goa managed 273/8 in 50 overs.

Brief scores: Group A: Kerala: 377/3 in 50 overs (Sanju Samson 212 n.o., Sachin Baby 127) bt Goa: 273/8 in 50 overs (Aditya Kaushik 58, Tunish Sawkar 56, Snehal Kauthankar 31; Sandeep Warrier 2-44, Nidheesh MD 2-57, Akshay Chandran 2-54). Points: Kerala: 4, Goa: 0.

Andhra: 265/6 in 50 overs (Kranthi Kumar 72, Prasanth Kumar 56, Ricky Bhui 59, Karan Shinde 32; Varun Aaron 2-54) lt to Jharkhand: 266/7 in 49.4 overs (Utkarsh Singh 49, Saurabh Tiwary 56, Virat Singh 74 n.o., Anukul Roy 33; Prithvi Raj 2-58). Points: Jharkhand: 4, Andhra: 0.

Group B: Punjab: 204 all out in 50 overs (Gurkeerat Singh 66, Karan Kaila 47; Ankit Rajpoot 4-36, Shivam Mavi 2-47, Saurabh Kumar 3-33) bt Uttar Pradesh: 141 all out 38.4 overs (Upendra Yadav 46; Karan Kaila 4-22, Mayank Markande 3-43, Gurkeerat Singh 2-33). Points: Punjab: 4, UP: 0.

Haryana: 135 all out in 39.5 overs (Sumit Kumar 47 n.o.; Satyajeet Bachhav 4-33, Shamshuzama Kazi 2-28, Azim Kazi 4-31) lt to Maharashtra: 136/5 in 35.1 overs (Ankit Bawne 42, Naushad Shaikh 48 n.o.; Yuzvendra Chahal 2-43, Jayant Yadav 2-36). Point: Maharashtra: 4, Haryana: 0.

Group C: Tamil Nadu: 360/4 in 50 overs (Abhinav Mukund 147, Vijay Shankar 90, Dinesh Karthik 65 n.o.) bt Madhya Pradesh: 149 all out in 28.4 overs (Venkatesh Iyer 25, Yash Dubey 38, Anand Bais 34; Abhishek Tanwar 2-39, R Sai Kishore 2-42, Murugan Ashwin 3-14, Baba Aparajith 2-0). Points: TN: 4, MP: 0.

Rajasthan: 268/5 in 50 overs (Yash Kothari 59, Chetan Bist 49, Rajesh Bishnoi 61 n.o., Deepak Chahar 63 n.o.; Shivam Kumar 2-45, Sarfaraz Ashraf 3-34) bt Bihar: 109 all out in 36.3 over (Chiranjivi Kumar 32, MD Rahmatullah 38; Rahul Chahar 4-45). Points: Rajasthan: 4, Bihar: 0.

Tripura: 236/9 in 50 overs (Udiyan Bose 85, Milind Kumar 65, Manisankar Murasingh 31; Shivendra Singh 3-48) lt to Railways: 238/9 in 49 overs (Arindam Ghosh 60, Karn Sharma 109 n.o.; Manisankar Murasingh 2-59, Ajoy Sarkar 2-40, Neelambuj Vats 2-45). Points: Railways: 4, Tripura: 0.