Vijay Hazare Trophy 2017: 2nd Semi-final Review: Sreevats Goswami leads Bengal to the final

The Vijay Hazare Trophy semi-final was postponed by a day after a fire broke out in the hotel at which the Dhoni’s Jharkhand team were staying. Jharkhand led by MS Dhoni won the toss and chose to field first on a good batting track at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium in Delhi. Shreevats Goswami opened the batting alongside Abhimanyu Easwaran. The opening duo got off to an excellent start adding on 198 runs for the first wicket partnership.

The opening pair’s partnership gave the perfect platform for the Manoj Tiwary side who were keen on meeting Tamil Nadu in the finals of the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Goswami was the first one to be dismissed by Monu Kumar as soon as he completed his century off just 98 balls with eleven boundaries and a solid sixer.

Manoj Tiwary, the captain of the side, walked into bat joining Abhimanyu in the middle of the park. The pair had added 31 runs before the latter was dismissed by a brilliant piece of fielding from Jharkhand’s opener Pratyush Singh. Agniv Pan joined the captain to form another partnership which added 41 runs before Agniv was dismissed by the fast bowler Varun Aaron.

Sudip Chatterjee strolled in the middle to help the team reach the elusive total of 300+ runs. Manoj took most of the strike away from Sudip to end with 75 runs off just 49 balls with seven boundaries and two sixes. On the other hand, Sudip scored 19 runs off just two overs with a six and a boundary before being dismissed by Aaron caught by Ishank Jaggi on the ropes.

Bengal ended the innings with a mammoth score of 329 runs for the loss of 4 wickets in their 50 overs with the final push from the blade of Manoj Tiwary who ended up unbeaten at 75 runs.

Jharkhand’s batting has not been in the best of the forms throughout the entire tournament, while a record chase was pending on their hands. Virat Singh and Pratyush Singh walked out to open the innings with the task of a record chase of 330 runs.

However, their hopes were shattered in as early as the 6th over when Kanishk Seth cleaned over Pratyush Singh while the batsman was batting at 11 runs. Virat’s partnership with Kumar Deobrat had lasted for 45 balls and 36 runs before Sayam Gosh dismissed the opener for 24 runs.

A short partnership between Kumar and Saurabh Tiwary gave hopes to the fans before a delivery from Kanishk brought out the loose shot from the batsmen while he made 37 runs in just 53 deliveries. Former Indian captain MS Dhoni walked out in the middle in the company of huge cheers from the crowd.

A partnership between Sourabh Tiwary and Dhoni was the one which provided the most hope for the fans of Jharkhand with the pair adding 54 runs before Saurabh was dismissed by a peach of a delivery from Ashoke Dinda to get dismissed for a well made 48 runs.

The partnership between Ishank Jaggi and Dhoni almost took the side home before the wicket-keeper Dhoni was dismissed by left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha for an outstanding 70 runs.

Jharkhand’s dreams were shattered when Ishank Jaggi was caught in front in the next over bowled by Sayan Gosh. Eventually, the Jharkhand team added another 30 runs from the next four wickets before being dismissed for a total of 288 runs.

Bengal’s opener Shreevats Goswami was deemed the Man of the Match for his outstanding display of 101 runs.

Brief Scores:

Bengal 329/4 in 50 overs (Shreevats Goswami 101 runs, Varun Aaron 2-89)

Jharkhand 288 in 50 overs (MS Dhoni 70 runs, Pragyan Ojha 5-71)

Bengal won by 41 runs