Vijay Hazare Trophy 2019-20: Round-up

On 11th October 2019, four games in total were played in the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2019-20. While three of these matches were Plate Group games of Round 13, another one was a Round 3 rescheduled match. There weren’t any rain interruptions in any of these matches and full games of cricket were possible.

Against Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh opted to bat first. However, the team lost quick wickets and was down to 30/5. Later, it was further reduced to 93/7. From there, it took a brilliant fightback from them to get to 225. While Rahul Dalal scored 84, Uvais Ahmad and Akhilesh Sahani remained unbeaten on 58 and 35 respectively. The Arunachal bowlers did a brilliant job in the second innings to secure a win. Johnson Singh with 36 runs was the highest scorer. However, there weren’t any other significant contributions. Thus, the team was bowled out for 143 runs and lost the game by 82 runs.

Nagaland managed to register an easy win against Sikkim. The latter, batting first, was bowled out for a mere 138 runs in 44.3 overs. With 32 runs, Asish Thapa was the leading run-scorer while no other batsman crossed 20. It was a team effort for Nagaland in the chase. Jonathan Rongsen and Stuart Binny contributed with scores of 36 and 35 respectively. The team got over the line in 36.5 overs and with 4 wickets to spare as they registered yet another victory in Vijay Hazare Trophy 2019-20.

Nitish Rana’s all-round efforts go in vain

In the game between Uttarakhand and Meghalaya, the former put up a massive score after they opted to bat first. Karn Veer Kaushal scored a brilliant 103 while Tanmay Srivastava mustered 76 runs. In the chase, Meghalaya lost a few wickets early and could never regain the momentum. Even though skipper Raj Biswa tried hard with a 74, he lacked support from the other batsmen. The team was bowled out for 174 runs and lost the game by 120 runs.

Shikhar Dhawan failed with the bat for Delhi as he only scored 2 runs against Vidarbha. However, Nitish Rana rose up to the occasion with a cautious unbeaten 100. He had good support from Anuj Rawat who piled on 54 runs. But since the batsmen played cautiously and ate up too many deliveries, the side could only get to 207/8 in 50 overs. It was an easy chase for Vidarbha. Faiz Fazal scored a brilliant 92 which set the tone for the chase. The likes of Wasim Jaffer and Akshay Wadkar made handy contributions. Vidarbha got over the line with 5 wickets to spare even though they took the chase deep.

Brief Scores:

Manipur vs Arunachal Pradesh – Plate Group

ARNP: 225/7 in 50 overs (R Dalal 84, Uvais Ahmad 58*, Priyojit K Singh 3/41)

MNP: 143/10 in 41.3 overs (Johnson Singh 36, Priyojit K Singh 29, Akhilesh Sahani 3/22) – Arunachal Pradesh won by 82 runs

Nagaland vs Sikkim – Plate Group

SKM: 138/10 in 44.3 overs (Asish Thapa 32, Ishwar Chaudhary 18, S Mundhe 3/28)

NGL: 140/6 in 36.5 overs (Jonathan R 36, Stuart Binny 35, Iqbal Abdullah 2/19) – Nagaland won by 4 wickets

Uttarakhand vs Meghalaya – Plate Group

UTK: 294/9 in 50 overs (Karn Veer Kaushal 103, T Srivastava 76, Sanjay Yadav 3/55)

MGLY: 174/10 in 42.4 overs (Raj Biswa 74, Ravi Teja 24, Avneesh Sudha 3/16) – Uttarakhand won by 120 runs

Delhi vs Vidarbha – Elite Group A and B

DEL: 207/8 in 50 overs (Nitish Rana 100*, Anuj Rawat 54, Yash Thakur 2/27)

VID: 208/5 in 48.2 overs (Faiz Fazal 92, Wasim Jaffer 42, Nitish Rana 3/36) – Vidarbha won by 5 wickets