Vijay Hazare Trophy: Aditya Tare and Siddesh Lad clinch the title for Mumbai
In spite of having the luxury of the likes of Prithvi Shaw, Ajinkya Rahane and Shreyas Iyyer in the top three, Mumbai were rescued by their old warhorses Siddesh Lad and Aditya Tare in the final of the 2018 Vijay Hazare Trophy. It should be noted that Lad was the one who was shown the door in spite of consistent performances for them when all the internationals came into the XI.
Thanks to great knocks under pressure from Siddesh Lad and Aditya Tare, Mumbai beat Delhi by four wickets in the final of India's premier List A tournament at the M Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru.
Chasing a modest total of 178, Mumbai lost the wickets of Prithvi Shaw (8), Ajinkya Rahane (10), skipper Shreyas Iyer (7) and Suryakumar Yadav (4) early with the scorecard reading just 40 in the eighth over of the game.
The early collapse opened up the game and gave Delhi a sniff at the title. But, Mumbai's Mr. Dependables over the years, Tare and Lad had other ideas as they ensured that the game is not running away from them. They saw off the early threat of Navdeep Saini as they started off cautiously before making the bowlers dance to their tunes.
The duo stitched together a handy partnership of 104 in over 26 overs for the fifth wicket and ensured that their team is in winning position by the time they departed. Tare was the first to depart as he was trapped in front of the stumps to Manan Sharma for 71 and with just two runs to win, Siddesh Lad was dismissed by Lalit Yadav for a well-made 48. Shivam Dubey's 12-ball 19 was enough for Mumbai to take the team home after the fall of Tare. Saini was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3/51.
Earlier in the day, three-wicket hauls from Dhawal Kulkarni and Shivam Dubey, along with a brace from Tushar Deshpande helped Mumbai restrict Delhi for just 177 in 45.4 overs. Himmat Singh top-scored for Delhi with 41 followed by Dhruv Shorey, who scored 31. Pawan Negi, who was looking good on 21, retired out after he was hit on his hands off the bowling of Tushar. With this win, Mumbai have registered their third Vijay Hazare Trophy title.
Brief scores: Delhi 177 in 45.4 overs (Himmat Singh 41, Dhruv Shorey 31, Shivam Dubey 3/29) lost to Mumbai 180/6 in 35 overs (Aditya Tare 71, Siddesh Lad 48, Navdeep Saini 3/51) by four wickets.