Vijay Hazare Trophy Day 6 review

The Vijay Hazare Trophy saw a couple of low scoring matches on Wednesday as no team crossed the 200-run mark. Himachal Pradesh took on Goa while the other match saw Uttar Pradesh play against Saurashtra.

In the match played at Rajkot, Saurashtra were put in to bat by Uttar Pradesh skipper Suresh Raina. After losing three wickets inside 4 overs for just 7 runs, the home side looked in a spot of bother. A handy 75-run partnership between Cheteshwar Pujara and Aarpit Vasavada kept the scoreboard ticking before Pujara was trapped LBW for 41 by Piyush Chawla. Ravindra Jadeja failed to score and was dismissed for 9 and soon Vasavada lost his wicket on a Bhuvneshwar Kumar delivery. Some late hitting by Kamlesh Makwana (35 off 46 balls) and Jaydev Unadkat (19 off 28 balls) saw the score tick along to 189. Saurashtra were all out for 189 in the penultimate over.

Piyush Chawla was the pick of the bowlers for UP with 3/53 while Bhuvneshwar, Praveen Kumar and Kuldeep Yadav picked 2 wickets each.

Uttar Pradesh, in response, had a horrid start as they lost Saurabh Dubey on the second ball of the innings. Coming in at number 3, Shubham Chaubey anchored the innings with an unbeaten 85 off 125 balls to steer the UP team over the line. Earlier, Raina scored a quick 18 before being dismissed by Makwana. The wicketkeeper, Eklavya Dwivedi, looked good for his 38 and put on 82 runs for the 4^th wicket with Chaubey before giving his wicket to D Jadeja. Akshdeep Nath patiently batted with Chaubey for his unbeaten 28 to give UP a win by 5 wickets.

Brief Scores:

Uttar Pradesh: 190/5 in 44.4 overs (Shubham Chaubey 85, D Jadeja 2-37) beat Saurashtra: 189/10 in 48.5 overs (Cheteshwar Pujara 41, Piyush Chawla 3-53) by 5 wickets.

In the other match, where Himachal Pradesh took on Goa at SCA Stadium, Rajkot, another low scoring affair waited in the ranks. After being put into bat, Goa could manage a paltry 184 in their innings. The openers provided a solid start with skipper Sagun Kamat scoring 57 (95) and Swapnil Asnodkar scoring 37 (44). Asnodkar lost his wicket when 62 runs were on the board.

Wicketkeeper Keenan Naz scored 25 off 37 before being out on Bipul Sharma’s delivery and was the second man to be dismissed. Rahul Singh quickly removed Reagan Pinto (3) and Saurabh Bandekar (23). Meanwhile, Goa skipper lost his patience and was stumped by Ankush Bains off Bipul Sharma. From 156/4, a total lower order collapse saw Goa crunch down to a total of 184 all out in 45.4 overs. None of the last 5 players could get into double digits as Pankaj Jaiswal rocked the tail with figures of 3/26. Bipul Sharna, Nikhil Gangta and Rahul Singh picked up two wickets each.

The chase was on and Himachal Pradesh were playing on a different track it seemed. The openers Ankush Bains and Prashant Chopra put on 80 runs for the 1^st wicket before Bains was cleaned up by Shadab Jakati for 36 off 29 balls. He hit 6 boundaries and a six. Prashant Chopra was soon to follow and was picked up by Jakati again. Chopra hit 9 boundaries and 2 maximums in his 67 of 53 balls. Robin Bist could add just 12. Paras Dogra (34*) and Rishi Dhawan (31*), then put on an unbeaten 61-run stand for the 4^th wicket to see Himachal Pradesh win by 7 wickets. Jakati was the only wicket taker for Goa with figures of 3/33 in his 7 overs.

Brief Scores:

Himachal Pradesh: 187/3 in 29.2 Overs (Prashant Chopra 67, Shadab Jakati 3-33) beat Goa: 184/10 in 45.4 overs (Sagun Kamat 57, P Jaiswal 3-26) by 7 wickets.