New Delhi: Mumbai and Uttar Pradesh on Thursday booked their berths in the final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2020-21 after registering comprehensive wins in their respective semifinal matches.
While Uttar Pradesh beat Gujarat, Mumbai came out on top against Karnataka. Both UP and Mumbai will now meet in the final at the Feroz Shah Kotla on Sunday.
In semifinal 1, an all-round bowling display and a solid fifty from Aksh Deep Nath helped Uttar Pradesh seal a five-wicket win over Gujarat at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi.
Gujarat, after electing to bat, lost skipper Priyank Panchal with just 7 runs on the board. Uttar Pradesh then continued to strike at regular intervals, scalping 4 more wickets before Gujarat had crossed the 100-run mark.
Gujarat were looking for a partnership and Het Patel and Piyush Chawla did just that. The two added 66 runs togethers during which Het Patel also completed a solid fifty. However, Gujarat lost the two in a space of a run.
Uttar Pradesh eventually bowled out Gujarat for 184.In the chase, Uttar Pradesh lost three early wickets before reaching fifty as Chintan Gaja dismissed Samarth Singh and Madhav Kaushik while Tejas Patel got Priyam Garg out.
However, skipper Karan Sharma and Aksh Deep Nath joined forces and added 89 runs together before Sharma got out for 38 by Karan Patel.
Nath, who had earlier brought up his fifty, though went on to score 71. While he got out when Uttar Pradesh needed 12 runs to win, Upendra Yadav, who had scored a hundred in the quarterfinal, and Sameer Choudhary took their side home.
Meanwhile in semifinal 2, skipper Prithvi Shaw continued his blistering run of batting form and scored 165 to set up Mumbai’s 72-run win over Karnataka in the semifinal at the Airforce Complex Ground in Palam.
The right-hander, who notched up his 4th hundred from 7 matches in the tournament, hammered 17 fours and 7 sixes in his stay in the middle and guided his side to 322 after being put into bat.
While Yashasvi Jaiswal got out early, Shaw added 71 runs with Aditya Tare before the wicketkeeper-batsman was dismissed.
Shams Mulani then joined Shaw in the middle and the pair put up a fine display, adding 159 runs. While Mulani, who scored 45 off 71 balls, was watchful in his approach, Shaw went after the Karnataka bowlers and completed a quickfire hundred.
However, the two got out in quick succession. While K Gowtham dismissed Mulani, Shaw, after scoring 165, got out off Vijaykumar Vyshak’s bowling.
Shivam Dube and Aman Hakim Khan then scored 27 and 25 runs respectively as Mumbai posted 322 on the board before being bowled out.
In the chase, Karnataka lost their skipper and in-from batsman R Samarth early as Dhawal Kulkarni struck in the second over. Devdutt Padikkal though kept the scorecard ticking and added 68 runs for the second wicket with K V Siddharth.
However, Mumbai struck twice in quick succession, dismissing Siddharth and experienced Manish Pandey in the space of four runs. Padikkal, who brought up his seventh successive fifty-plus score in the tournament, departed soon after for 64 after Prashant Solanki struck in the 20th over.
While Karun Nair, Shreyas Gopal, wicketkeeper B R Sharath and K Gowtham scored 29, 33, 61 & 28 respectively, Mumbai bowled out Karnataka for 250 to seal a win and went on to secure a place in the final.(UNI)
