Gujarat’s Axar Patel and Delhi’s Unmukt Chand were the standout performers from the semi-final round of the Vijay Hazare Trophy matches in Bangalore on Saturday, on a day which saw favourites Tamil Nadu knocked out and Himachal Pradesh’s sparkling run brought to an end.
Gautam Gambhir won the toss for Delhi against HP and chose to field. This proved to be the right decision, as the HP batsmen found scoring difficult, also being rocked by wickets at frequent intervals. Rishi Dhawan and Robin Bist, who had come up matchwinning performances in this campaign, were both dismissed for single-figure scores.
All the four primary Delhi bowlers – Ishant Sharma, Navdeep Saini, Subodh Bhati and Manan Sharma – were on target, going for less than 4 runs per over in their 10. HP finished their innings at 200/9, mainly on the back of a quickfire 51 by Bipul Sharma.
Delhi made their way to the target of 201 with consummate ease, with Unmukt Chand’s confident 86-ball 80 laying sheet anchor. Shikhar Dhawan also produced a 53-ball 39, calming the initial flutters and paving the way towards victory.
Rishi Dhawan and Bipul Sharma produced some economical bowling, but HP just did not have enough runs to play with, as Delhi won the match with 9 overs to spare, sealing their spot in the final on Sunday.
Axar storm derails TN’s charge to final
Tamil Nadu chose to field after winning the toss against Gujarat too, and by the early look of things, they had taken the correct decision too. Parthiv Patel was dismissed for a duck in the very first over, triggering a collapse which saw Gujarat tottering at 87/5 in the 23rd over.
However, a 6th wicket partnership of 93 runs between Chirag Gandhi and Manprit Juneja, who scored 71 and 74 respectively, revived Gujarat’s fortunes. They finished their innings at 248/8. The most successful TN bowler was Ravichandran Ashwin, with figures of 3/51 in his 10 overs.
Abhinav Mukund and Dinesh Karthik started the chase spectacularly, racing to 84 for no loss in 16 overs. However, they were not prepared for the storm that lay ahead, as Axar Patel ran in to bowl.
Patel’s first three overs yielded four wickets and only six runs, turning the game on its head – Dinesh Karthik, Baba Aparajith, Baba Indrajith and Murali Vijay being his victims. Mukund plodded his way on at one end, as the entire Tamil Nadu unit collapsed in a heap at the other, finiding no way to deal with Axar Patel’s spin.
There was some resistance provided by Ashwin at No.7, who scored 22, but the spell by Axar had virtually decided the match. Mukund remained unbeaten on 104, as TN were shot down for 217, losing by 31 runs.
Axar Patel finished with figures of 6/43, and as a result became the highest wicket taker in the 2015 edition of the Vijaya Hazare Trophy – with 19 wickets from 8 matches.
Delhi and Gujarat will meet for the final in Bengaluru on Sunday. While Gujarat have never won this tournament, Delhi have won it once.
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