In the preliminary quarter-finals for the Vijay Hazare Trophy, West Zone champions Mumbai triumphed over Delhi while Punjab beat Gujarat to enter the next phase of the tournament. Shardul Thakur impressed with the ball while Wasim Jaffer starred with the bat in Mumbai’s victory.
In the other game, Punjab’s Amitoze Singh and Gurkeerat Singh Mann set-up the game for the team while captain Harbhajan Singh smashed a half-century and claimed two wickets in the winning cause.
Here is the round-up for the day:
Delhi vs Mumbai: After the Thakur-led Mumbai attack wrapped up Delhi for 157, Jaffer-led Mumbai’s chase with a sparkling unbeaten 83. The Suryakumar Yadav-led side matched their way to a six-wicket win with 117 balls to spare.
Opting to field in Rajkot, Mumbai sent Delhi’s top-order back in the pavilion for 39 runs. Unmukt Chand and Virender Sehwag were dismissed by Thakur, while Wilkin Mota claimed Gautam Gambhir to push the opponents on the backfoot.
Milind Kumar put in a valiant effort to hold the innings together as wickets fell at the other end. The middle-order bat was the last batsman to return to the dressing room for 64 bringing the innings to end in 42.3 overs. Thakur claimed 3/25, while Iqbal Abdulla picked 2/24.
Chasing the sub-par total, Mumbai lost Siddhesh Lad for a duck while Akhil Herwadkar was dismissed for 30 by Sumit Narwal 28 runs later. Veteran Mumbai batsman, Jaffer however kept the team on course while entertaining with some delectable shots.
While Shreyas Iyer was sent back by Parvinder Awana, captain Suryakumar Yadav departed taking the aerial route to Varun Sood without opening his account. Aditya Tare then assisted Jaffer in taking Mumbai through to the quarter-finals.
Punjab vs Gujarat: Punjab outplayed Gujarat at the Madhavrao Scindia Cricket Ground to post a 29-run win in Rajkot. Asked to bat, Punjab were lifted to 255/8 by opener Amitoze Singh (75), middle-order Gurkeerat Singh Mann (72) along with skipper Harbhajan Singh (51).
Rush Kalaria picked 3/55 while Rohit Dahiya took 2/46 as they looked to restrict the opposition. Chasing a modest target, Gujarat lost opener Smit Patel for a duck while Parthiv Patel was sent back by Sandeep Sharma for 19.
The pacer then followed up with the wicket of Venugopal Rao as his third wicket to leave Gujarat on 45/3. 45 runs later, Harbhajan Singh accounted for PK Panchal and a while later removed RH Bhatt.
At 113/5, West Zone were struggling to stay in the game and continued to lose wickets at regular intervals. Next, it was Yuvraj Singh who dealt telling blows to the Gujarat middle-order with the wickets of Akshar Patel and JB Karia.
Although Dahiya put up a late fight down the order it was an improbable task for the side. The No.9 batsman’s effort was worth 53 before being the last wicket to fall. Baltej Singh claimed Dahiya to wrap-up the side for 226 in 47.3 overs.
By: BCCI
