Vijay Hazare Trophy: Delhi beat Punjab by 4 wickets; Virender Sehwag gets a duck
Veteran Rajat Bhatia’s responsible, unbeaten innings of 58(72) sealed a 4-wicket-win for Delhi against Punjab in the Vijay Hazare Trophy – North Zone fixture on Saturday.
Much was expected out of the contest as the sides were heavily loaded with senior Indian discards namely Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Ashish Nehra (all Delhi), Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh (both Punjab). However, it was the younger lot that stealed the limelight along with Bhatia.
Chasing a below par 183 for a win, Delhi were taken aback when the 21-year-old Sandeep Sharma sent back his Kings XI Punjab teammate Sehwag for a duck on the fourth delivery of the innings. Amitoze Singh's three wickets (3/27) kept Punjab in the game but the 51-run 6th wicket stand involving Bhatia and Puneet Bisht (30 off 31) shut the door completely for Harbhajan’s men.
Earlier, put into to bat, Taruwar Kohli (50) and Gurkeerat Singh Mann (47) steadied the ship as Yuvraj Singh (15 off 34) flopped in the 45 overs a side fixture. It turned out to be a comprehensive win in the end as Delhi reached home with 6 overs to spare.
Notably, it was the first win for Delhi after going down against Jammu and Kashmir in the tournament opener.
Brief Scores:
Punjab: 182/6 (Taruwar Kohli 50, Gurkeerat Singh Mann 47; Sumit Narwal 3/23, Ashish Nehra 2/41)
Delhi: 188/6 in 44 overs (Rajat Bhatia 58*, Puneet Bisht 30; Amitoze Singh 3/27).
Delhi won by 4 wickets.