Vijay Hazare Trophy 2018: Delhi progress through to the final with thrilling 2 wicket win over Jharkhand 

Delhi progressed through the finals of the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2018/19 season with a thrilling 2 wicket win over Jharkhand in the 2nd semifinal played at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore on Thursday. It was a close fought match as Delhi held their nerves to enter the finals.

Delhi captain Gautam Gambhir won the toss and decided to field first. Navdeep Saini got off to a perfect dismissing Jharkhand captain Ishan Kishan for 0 in the first over. SS Rathour and Anand Singh added 24 runs for the 2nd wicket before Rathour played a poor stroke. Jharkhand scored 30 for 2 at end of 10 overs. Anand Singh was the other top scorer with 36 for Jharkhand.

The Delhi bowlers kept picking wickets to reduce the Ishan Kishan led side to 85 for 6. Shahbaz Nadeem and Virat Singh played sensibly adding 55 important runs for the 7th wicket. The latter showed his class reaching his half-century off 73 balls and added 44 runs for the 9th wicket with R Shukla. He was the top scorer for Jharkhand with 71 runs. Eventually, Delhi bowled out Jharkhand for 199 in 48.5 overs. For Delhi, Navdeep Saini took 4 for 30 in 10 overs while Khejroliya and Vijayran took 2 wickets each, Bhatti and Rana picked up 1 wicket each.

Chasing a target of 200 runs to win, Unmukt Chand started the innings on a positive note scoring 17 off 13 balls before being dismissed by Varun Aaron. Gambhir and Shorey added 31 runs for the 2nd wicket before part-time bowler Anand Singh took the wicket of Shorey. Delhi scored 51 for 2 at end of 10 overs.

Gambhir and Nitish added 32 runs for the 3rd wicket before the former was dismissed for 27. Jharkhand then reduced Delhi to 87 for 4. Young Nitish Rana and Vijayran added 36 runs for 5th wicket. However, from 123 for 4, Jharkhand reduced Delhi to 149 for 8.

In the end, Pawan Negi played a gem of an innings and Navdeep Saini gave him full support playing 38 balls scoring 13 runs. Negi remained not out on 39 off 49 balls and helped Delhi win the match by 2 wickets with 2 balls to spare. For Jharkhand, Anand Singh took 3 for 39 while Nadeem and Varun Aaron took 2 wickets each. Anukul Roy took 1 wicket.

Delhi 200 for 8 in 49.4 overs ( Pawan Negi 39*, S Nadeem 2/34, Anand Singh 3/34, Varun Aaron 2/39) beat

Jharkhand 199 in 48.5 overs ( Virat Singh 71, Anand Singh 36, Navdeep Saini 4/30, Khejroliya 2/31) by 2 wickets.

Delhi will face Mumbai in the finals of Vijay Hazare Trophy 2018 on 20th October at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore.