Vijay Hazare Trophy, 2nd Q/F: MS Dhoni left stranded as Delhi wins big

MS Dhoni turned out to be the lone fighter for a hapless Jharkhand side, as Gautam Gambhir led Delhi wrapped up a 99-run win. Delhi won the toss earlier in the day and elected to field on a bright sunny day at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. Rishabh Pant and Shikhar Dhawan started the innings on a spirited fashion, finding the gaps easily and going for the hammer when matter.

An opening stand of 53 set Delhi for an impressive total, after Pant was back for 24. Ankit Dabas was not done yet as he came back to scalp the wicket of Shikhar Dhawan to tickle the scorecard at 61/2. Skipper Gautam Gambhir tried to get things going and looked settled for a big one until a careless jog from the captain

Ankit Dabas was not done yet as he came back to scalp the wicket of Shikhar Dhawan to tickle the scorecard at 61/2. Skipper Gautam Gambhir tried to get things going and looked settled for a big one until a careless jog from the captain proved too costly, as Shahbaz Nadeem hit the bulls eye. Delhi lost three wickets in a span of nine runs during the middle overs and that was enough to send jitters around at 100/5.

Jharkhand couldn’t capitalise on the early breakthroughs, as Nitish Rana and Manan Sharma steadied Delhi’s ship with a 74 run-stand for the sixth wicket. Jharkhand gave away 29 extra’s which proved too costly, and Pawan Negi’s 16 balls 38 helped Delhi to post 225 which looked hardly gettable at one stage.

Chasing 226, Jharkhand failed to make an early mark and found themselves in hot waters at 9/4. The onus was on MS Dhoni to lift his team and he batted in emphatic fashion. Wickets kept tumbling at one end but Dhoni kept the score-board ticking. Only Kaushal Singh and Ankit Dabas found themselves in double figures apart from MSD, as Jharkhand were floored without much fuss.

Dhoni smashed five boundaries and four sixes but failed to take his team over. Navdeep Saini scalped three wickets and Suboth Bhati wrapped up the tail with a 4-wicket haul, as Jharkhand went down for 126 to see Delhi reach the semi-finals.

Brief Scores:

Delhi: 225 in 50 overs (Rana 41; Shukla 3/60)

Jharkhand: 126 in 38 overs (Dhoni 70*; Bhati 4/21)

Man of the match: Pawan Negi (Delhi)