Vijay Hazare Trophy 2019-20, Round 2: Round-up

Rain played spoilsport yet again on the second day of the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2019-20. Most of the matches on this day had to be washed out even without a ball bowled. There were some great individual performances and some highly entertaining cricket in whatever play was possible in Round 2 of the tournament.

Here is how things progressed in Round 2 of the Vijay Hazare Trophy:

Elite Group A:

Three Elite Group A matches were scheduled to be played in Round 2. Mumbai was supposed to face Jharkhand in Bengaluru. Hyderabad and Kerala were supposed to be up against Goa and Chhattisgarh respectively in Alur. However, the play wasn’t possible in any of these three games. While the Mumbai-Jharkhand match was abandoned due to a wet outfield, rain refused to relent in the other two games. Therefore, equal points were shared between all these teams.

Scores:

Mumbai vs Jharkhand – Match abandoned due to wet outfield.

Hyderabad vs Goa – Match abandoned due to rain.

Kerala vs Chattisgarh – Match abandoned due to rain.

Elite Group B:

Group B was met with a similar fate as Group A. However, these games weren’t abandoned without the toss. The encounter between Punjab and Himachal Pradesh was reduced to 42-overs per side. In the first innings, Punjab put up 169/9 in 42 overs. Anmol Malhotra, Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill made contributions worth 36, 29 and 23 respectively while Rishi Dhawan picked up a four-wicket haul. However, after Himachal scored 22 runs in 8 overs in the second innings of the match, the rain decided to pour in and play had to be called off.

Against Uttar Pradesh, Baroda seemed to be in absolute tatters. In 20.3 overs, they were reduced to 91/8. It might have been an easy victory for UP if it wasn’t for rain that didn’t make the proceedings possible any further. Similar scenes were on display after Haryana was bowled out for 154 against Delhi. However, just as the Delhi side began batting, rain-interrupted and points had to be shared.

Scores:

Delhi vs Haryana

HAR: 154/10 in 32.4 overs (Pramod Chandila 58, N Saini 23, Navdeep Saini 4/36)

DEL: 6/0 in 1.3 0vers – Match abandoned due to rain

Baroda vs Uttar Pradesh

BRD: 91/8 in 20.3 overs (Krunal Pandya 36, Deepak Hooda 16, Shivam Mavi 3/9) – No result due to rain

Punjab vs Himachal Pradesh

PUN: 169/9 in 42 overs (Anmol Malhotra 36, Abhishek Sharma 29, Rishi Dhawan 4/43)

HP: 22/1 in 8 overs (Ankush Bains 7*, Prashanth Chopra 7*, Sandeep Sharma 1/7) – No result due to rain

Elite Group C:

The VJD Method came handy for the Group C matches. Fortunately, the result was possible in all the three matches that were played. Tamil Nadu absolutely destroyed Services in one of the games. A 95 from Dinesh Karthik and a 73 from Hari Nishanth guided the team to 294/8 in 50 overs. In return, all the Services could manage was 82 runs before they were bowled out in the 20th over. Krishnamoorthy Vignesh picked up a five-wicket haul to hand Tamil Nadu a 212-run win.

Railways managed to register an easy win against Bihar. It was decided that they won the match by 84 runs after the VJD method kicked in. Skipper Arindam Ghosh led Railways from the front with a brilliant 96 while Vikrant Rajput scored 70. Even though Shasheem Rathour fought hard for Bihar with an unbeaten 86, his efforts weren’t enough.

In the other game, a fabulous century from Tanmay Mishra guided Tripura to 268/8 in 50 overs. Madhya Pradesh, however, failed miserably to chase this target down. They were at 86/6 in 26 overs before it began to pour hard. Tripura won the match by 104 runs according to the VJD method.

Scores:

Madya Pradesh vs Tripura

TRI: 268/8 in 50 overs (T Mishra 102, Milind Kumar 41, I Pandey 2/41)

MP: 86/6 in 26 overs (Rajat Patidar 41, Parth Sahani 21, Manisankar Murasingh 1/10) – Tripura won by 104 runs (VJD Method)

Railways vs Bihar

RLYS: 289/6 in 50 overs (A Ghosh 96, Vikrant Rajput 70, Vivek Kumar 3/55)

BIH: 155/6 in 43 overs (Shasheem Rathour 86*, Sachin Kumar 31, Karn Sharma 3/23) – Railways won by 84 runs (VJD Method)

Services vs Tamil Nadu

TN: 294/8 in 50 overs (Dinesh Karthik 95, Hari Nishanth 73, R Paliwal 2/26)

SER: 82/10 in 19.1 overs (Nakul Verma 20, G Rahul Singh 17, K Vignesh 5/41) – Tamil Nadu won by 212 runs.

Plate Group:

The encounter between Uttarakhand and Chandigarh in Dehradun was abandoned just after one ball was bowled due to a wet outfield. Meanwhile, a complete 100-over game was possible at another venue in Dehradun for the match between Assam and Mizoram. Swarupam Purkayastha was fabulous with an unbeaten 150-ball 163 while skipper Sibsankar Roy mustered 79 runs in 53 balls for Assam. Thus, they got to 324/3 in 50 overs.

In the chase, Mizoram could only get to 211/6 in 50 overs despite the efforts from Abrar Kazi who remained unbeaten on 78. Assam, thus, won the match by 113 runs. In the other game, Meghalaya was bowled out for 107 in 26.1 overs after the game was reduced to 28-overs per side.

Sagar Trivedi picked up four wickets. Puducherry chased this target down easily even though they lost a few wickets. Suresh Kumar and Vinay Kumar helped the team get a 4-wicket win after there was a slight panic situation halfway through. Their efforts helped Puducherry register the first win of Vijay Hazare Trophy 2019-20.

Scores:

Puducherry vs Meghalaya

MGLY: 107/10 in 26.1 overs (Ravi Teja 21, Sanjay Yadav 20, Sagar Trivedi 4/18)

PDC: 108/6 in 23.5 overs (SS Kumar 37*, Vinay Kumar 20*, Abhay Negi 4/17) – Puducherry won by 4 wickets

Uttarakhand vs Chandigarh

UTK: 4/0 in 0.1 overs (U Chand 2*) – No result due to rain

Assam vs Mizoram

ASM: 324/3 in 50 overs (Purkayastha 163*, Sibsankar Roy 79*, Sumit Lamba 1/40)

MIZ: 211/6 in 50 overs (A Kazi 78*, Parvez Ahmed 38, Roshan Alam 4/45) – Assam won by 113 runs.