Vijay Hazare Trophy: Haryana and Services secure narrow wins

Yuvraj Singh failed to fire again

Discarded middle-order batsman Yuvraj Singh failed with the bat as his side Punjab were beaten by 3 wickets by Haryana at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee stadium in Nadaun in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Punjab put up 252 for 8 in their 50 overs, thanks largely to Mandeep Singh’s 86, after being asked to bat by Haryana captain Harshal Patel.

Yuvraj scored 23 runs off 31 balls before getting stumped by Jayant Yadav. Ashish Yadav was the pick of the Haryana bowlers taking 3 wickets with the new ball.

In reply, Haryana reached the target with five balls to spare, courtesy a 71 from Sachin Rana and useful contributions from Avi Barot (53) and Jayant Yadav. Gurkeerat Singh Mann picked up 2 wickets for Punjab.

Services secure narrow win

In another match, Himachal Pradesh took on Services at their home ground in Dharamsala. However, that advantage didn’t matter much as Services registered a narrow two-wicket win after stumbling their way to 182 that was set by the hosts.

Brief scores

Punjab 252/8 in 50 overs (Mandeep Singh 86, Taruwar Kohli 47 not out; Ashish Hooda 3-53, Harshal Patel 2-62) lost to Haryana 253/7 in 49.1 overs (Avi Barot 53, Sachin Rana 71 not out; Gurkeerat Singh 2-28) by 3 wickets.

Himachal Pradesh 181 all out in 45.2 overs (Prashant Chopra 43, Bipul Sharma 35; Narendra Kumar 3-38) lost to Services 182/8 in 40 overs (Nakul Verma 57, Yashpal Singh 28; Vikramjeet Malik 3-36, Rahul Singh 3-27) by 2 wickets.