Vijay Hazare Trophy 2018-19 - Quarter-finals Round Up

Gautam Gambhir scored a hundred on his 37th birthday to propel Delhi into the final-four stages.

Published - 14 Oct 2018, 19:37 IST | Updated - 14 Oct 2018, 19:37 IST

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After some scintillating performances in the group stages, two heavyweights of Indian cricket made it through the quarter-finals of the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Mumbai and Delhi defeated Bihar and Haryana respectively to seal their semi-final berths and both these sides are certainly two of the favourites to go all the way.

Mumbai had a walk in the park against tournament debutants Bihar, who reached the final-eight stages after topping the Plate group. Unfortunately for them, the former 2-time champions rode through them and registered a pretty comfortable win in the end.

Mumbai had won the toss earlier and decided to bowl first. There was a clear difference in quality of cricket in both sides, which reflected on the scorecard. Although Bihar did fight hard, it was way too tough an ask for them to compete with the level of Mumbai.

With Tushar Deshpande chipping in with a five-fer and Shams Mulani picking three wickets, they got bowled out for 69 runs in 28.2 overs. Asia Cup winning captain Rohit Sharma was with the Mumbai side for this game, who remained unbeaten on 33 in the run chase as the hot-favourites won the game by 9 wickets and 225 balls to spare.

Gambhir scores a ton on birthday; Delhi romp through

An inspirational performance from Gautam Gambhir sealed the deal for Delhi in their quarter-final clash against Haryana at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore. After a sensational group stage rendition, Haryana just couldn’t stand on level terms with Delhi and eventually got knocked out.

Batting first, Chaitanya Bishnoi chipped in with a brilliant knock for Haryana and was assisted well by Pramod Chandila in the middle order. Barring the 50+ contributions from these two gentlemen, the Haryana batsmen faltered big time. Kulwant Khejroliya picked up 6 wickets, giving away just 31 runs in 10 overs for the 2012/13 champions.

In reply, Unmukt Chand was dismissed early in the innings, but Gambhir and Dhruv Shorey added 118 runs for the second wicket and set a brilliant platform for Nitish Rana to come in and whack a few lusty blows. Gambhir’s hundred and Shorey’s fifty eventually helped them win the game by 5 wickets and 64 balls to spare.