In two closely fought quarter-final clashes in Rajkot, Odisha muscled past Goa while Bengal beat Vidarbha to enter the semi-finals of the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2014-15. Manoj Tiwary starred with a 101-ball 130 in Bengal’s victory.
Bengal bowler Veer Pratap Singh claimed 6/51 to help defend the target despite centuries by Faiz Fazal and S Badrinath for Vidarbha. In the other game, Anurag Sarangi and Biplab Samantray set up the match for Odisha with centuries. The latter then claimed two wickets in the winning cause.
Here is the round-up for the day.
Bengal vs Vidarbha: Bengal pulled off a 17-run win against Vidarbha in a high scoring game at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium to keep themselves in the race for the domestic One-day title.
Asked to bat, Bengal were powered to 318/5 by Manoj Tiwary and Shreevats Goswami. The pair added 142 for the second wicket before the opener was sent back by RD Thakur. With some glorious hitting on either side of the wicket, which included nine sixes, Tiwary set-up the game for his team. It was in the pen-ultimate over of the game that Tiwary was sent back by S Bandiwar.
Defending the target, the East zone team were given a tough fight by the West Zone team. Vidarbha opener Faiz Fazal scored a111-ball 105 to keep the chase on course, Subramaniam Badrinath kept the team afloat before falling to an aerial shot in the last over of the game.
While the two centurions had taken on the bowlers, the rest of the line-up were sent back for low scores by the Bengal bowlers. With a target looming large, wickets fell at regular intervals.
Odisha vs Goa: Odisha won a cliff-hanger against Goa by one run to book a berth in the next round. Centuries by Anurag Sarangi (112) and Biplab Samantray (100 of 73) propelled Odisha to 289 even as the rest of the line-up caved-in to the Saurabh Bandekar-led attack.
After leaving Odisha reeling on 29/2, Bandekar returned to claim the middle-order. Darshan Misal ended the flourishing partnership between the two centurions with the wicket of Sarangi. And Bandekar followed up with the wicket of Samantaray in the next over and in his next picked two more.
Unable to capitalise on the platform laid by the middle-order pair to take the team to a 263/4 in the 46th over, the batsmen succumbed to the Goa attack in quick succession. With single-digit scores and two ducks in the line-up the Odisha innings was wrapped up with four balls remaining. Bandekar claimed 5/37 to keep Odisha under 300-run mark.
Chasing the target, Goa lost captain Swapnil Asnodkar with just 26 runs on the board. However, opener Amogh Desai kept the team in the fray with a 110-run knock while No.3 batsman Sagun Kamat too put up a fight with an unbeaten 92. But the rest of the line-up was kept on a tight leash by the Odisha bowlers. Samantray, Paresh Patel and Dhiraj Singh claimed two wickets each to hold Goa to 288/9 and claim a resounding win.
By: BCCI
