New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh defeated Gujarat by five wickets in a tight semifinal to seal a spot in the final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy on Thursday. Akshdeep Nath’s 71 from 104 balls at the Arun Jaitley Stadium inspired UP to chase down a target of 185 in 42.4 overs.
Having won the toss, Gujarat opted to bat. However, they stumbled throughout their innings failing to build a good partnership. Het Patel (60) was the only silver lining amidst their gloomy batting display with Piyush Chawla(32) coming in handy down the order. The hosts got all-out for 184 largely thanks to the superb bowling from the visitors with Yash Dayal(3/34) being the pick of them.
In reply, UP had a scratchy start to their chase losing both their openers cheaply. Akshdeep along with skipper Karan Sharma (38) steadied the ship before Upendra Yadav with his 25-ball 31 guided his side to the final after 16 years.
On the same day, Prithvi Shaw’s century against Karnataka in the second semifinal helped Mumbai to a comfortable 72-run win in the other semifinal. Shaw slammed his fourth century in the ongoing tournament breaking Mayank Agarwal’s record of scoring most runs in a single edition amassing 754 runs so far in the tournament.
Mumbai won the toss and decided to bat first. Yashasvi Jaiswal once again failed to play big innings but the captain continued to score at the other end. Shaw went on to score 165 runs off just 122 balls with the help of 17 fours and seven sixes with Shams Mulani (45) adding valuable runs in the middle guiding Mumbai to reach 322 in 50 overs.
In reply, Karnataka batsmen despite getting a good start were unable to build on the momentum. Devdutt Padikkal (64) and BR Sharath (61) took the game to the Mumbai bowlers. However, The hosts’ bowlers especially Tanush Kotian (2/23) kept it tight to get things over the line booking place in the final against Uttar Pradesh.
