Vijay Hazare Trophy 2018: Saurashtra, Andhra make it to last four with comfortable wins
Saurashtra got into trouble while chasing 248 against Baroda in the Vijay Hazare Trophy Quarter-Final, but eventually ended up on the winning side with 3 wickets and 8 deliveries in hand. Opener Avi Barot and captain Cheteshwar Pujara steadied Saurashtra's ship with a 102-run stand for the thrid wicket before Pujara was caught for 40 off Atit Sheth. Barot departed soon after for 82 while Krunal Pandya removed Prerak Mankad for 25. However, southpaw Arpit Vasavada kept Saurashtra in the game by adding 40 for the seventh wicket with Chirag Jani, who contributed a crucial 25; but Sheth got both Jani and next man Kamlesh Makvana to maintain Baroda's fight. In the end, though, Vasavada's 45* took Saurashtra home after some nerves set into the chase.
Earlier, Baroda's top four threw away good starts to surrender an early momentum; the middle-order continued the slide, as Baroda slipped from 82/1 to 105/7 with Jani bagging 4/35 and Mankad bowling ten cheap overs for 2/29. But Pandya and Soaeb Tai fought back with a partnership of 97: Pandya was dismissed for 61 while Tai remained unbeaten on 72* to take Baroda to 247/8, which proved insufficient in the end.
Meanwhile, Delhi collapsed for merely 111 against Andhra with the return of Gautam Gambhir making no difference to their batting. Siva Kumar returned figures of 4/29, including the scalps of Gambhir, Unmukt Chand and Rishabh Pant, who top scored for Delhi with 38 off 46 balls. Bharghav Bhatt complemented Siva with three wickets of his own, wrapping up the tail in quick time.
Delhi began their defense positively with captain Ishant Sharma and new find Navdeep Saini reducing Andhra to 11/2, the latter sending back in form captain Hanuma Vihari for 6. But Ashwin Hebbar and Ricky Bhui ensured further drama stayed away with a stand of 54; Hebbar made 38 while Bhui got 36, as despite two more losses, Andhra got to 112 with plenty of overs to spare.
Brief Scores:
Saurashtra 251/7 in 48.4 overs (Barot 82, Vasavada 45*; Sheth 3/38) beat Baroda 247/8 in 50 overs (Tai 72*, K Pandya 61; Jani 4/35) by 3 wickets
Andhra 112/4 in 28.4 overs (Hebbar 38, Bhui 36; Ishant 1/11) beat Delhi 111 in 32.1 overs (Pant 38; Siva 4/29, B Bhatt 3/28) by 6 wickets