Vijay Hazare: UP, Mumbai enter semifinals
New Delhi, Mar 9 :Uttar Pradesh outclassed Delhi while Mumbai beat Saurashtra in their respective quarterfinal matches on Tuesday to enter the semifinals of Vijay Hazare Trophy.
With the win, UP and Delhi have now joined Gujarat and Karnataka in the semifinals of the tournament.
In quarterfinal 3, Wicketkeeper-batsman Upendra Yadav and skipper Karan Sharma played pivotal roles with the bat and set up Uttar Pradesh’s 46-run win over Delhi at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi.
Uttar Pradesh, after being put into bat, were reduced to 66/4 as Delhi pacers struck at regular intervals. But the pair of Sharma and Yadav, who joined the forces in the 17th over, staged a fine recovery.
The duo added 129 runs together before Sharma got out after scoring a solid 83 off 100 balls. Sameer Choudhary replaced Sharma in the middle and he and Yadav went on to add 74 runs together.
Yadav also notched up a hundred before he got out for 112 in the penultimate over.
Needing 281 runs to win, Delhi lost two early wickets as Yash Dayal struck twice in the second over. While Himmat Singh and Nitish Rana added 56 runs, Uttar Pradesh managed to scalp three wickets in the space of 15 runs and reduced Delhi to 78/5.
Lalit Yadav and Anuj Rawat, who had guided Delhi to a win in the pre-quarters over Uttarakhand, denied Uttar Pradesh any immediate success and added 104 runs.
Shivam Mavi though broke the partnership as he dismissed Lalit Yadav for 61 before Dayal got Rawat out for 47 in the 44th over. Uttar Pradesh eventually bowled Delhi out for 234 and with it, secured a place in the semifinals.
In quarterfinal 4, captain Prithvi Shaw led from the front while Yashasvi Jaiswal scored as Mumbai sealed a nine-wicket win over Saurashtra at the Airforce Complex Ground in Palam.
Needing 285 runs to win, Mumbai were looking for a solid start and Shaw and Jaiswal did just that, adding 238 runs for the opening wicket.
While Jaiswal was watchful in his approach before he got out in the 35th over, Shaw, who remained not out and notched up his third ton of the tournament, went after the Saurashtra bowlers, hammering 185 off 123 balls with the help of 21 fours and 7 sixes.
Mumbai eventually won the match with 7.5 overs to spare and with it, secured a place in the semifinals.
Earlier, after electing to bat, Saurashtra enjoyed a solid start as the openers Avi Barot and Snell Patel put up a 58-run stand. However, Mumbai scalped three wickets for 27 runs as Saurashtra lost both the openers and Prerak Mankad.
Vishvarajsinh Jadeja and Arpit Vasavada then added 36 runs before the latter got out after Saurashtra had moved to 121. Jadeja, who had scored 53, was the next man to get out as Prashant Solanki struck in the 37th over.
While Saurashtra were reduced to 155/5 with Jadeja’s fall, Samarth Vyas and Chirag Jani did a remarkable job and powered their team to 284, putting up an unbroken 129-run stand. Vyas scored 90* off 71 balls while Jani scored a quickfire 53* off 38 balls. (UNI)