Vijay Hazare Trophy: Punjab make light work of Odisha to qualify for finals

Mandeep Singh (File Photo)

Man-in-form Amitoze Singh’s steady 91 and a brisk 81 from Mandeep Singh helped Punjab down Odisha in the Vijay Hazare Trophy semi-final on Sunday. Opting to field first at Motera, Ahmedabad, Punjab had things under control right from the start, restricting Odisha to 238/7 in the allotted 50 overs.

Arabind Singh (89 from 100) and Natraj Behera 61 (96) gave some readability to the Odisha innings. Notably, it required a 26-ball 36 from Abhilash Mallick to give the coastal state some acceleration leading up to the slog overs.

Both Harbhajan and Yuvraj were economical, conceding just 62 runs from 18 overs between them, picking up a couple of wickets in the process.

In reply, Punjab lost Manan Vohra early with just 13 on board. The 2nd wicket pair of Amitoze and Mandeep then put on a match-winning 163-run partnership that all but sealed Punjab a place in the finals. Both the half-centurions were dismissed on 180, in successive overs. As an anti-climax, an unfortunate run out deprived Amitoze a deserving century.

Suryakant Pradhan’s miserly figures of 1/22 from 8 overs failed to stop the Punjab batsmen as runs were taken off others fairly convincingly. Yuvraj Singh (26), who scored a match-winning fifty in the quarter-finals last Friday, finished things off with a six. Taruwar Kohli also remained unbeaten on 35, as Punjab won by 7 wickets.

Punjab will be up against defending champions Karnataka in the final on Tuesday.