The Vijay Hazare Trophy, India’s premier 50-over competition, has moved into the business end already, with Haryana making their first-ever final of the competition. They beat the powerhouse Tamil Nadu by 63 runs to seal the deal. After piling 293/7 in 50 overs, largely due to Yuvraj Singh’s 65, and Himanshu Rana’s 116, Haryana bundled out TN for 230.
Pacer Anshul Kamboj starred with the ball for the winning team, rattling TN with 4/30. While for the losing side, there wasn’t much coming from anyone, even the experienced lot. In fact, Tamil Nadu failed despite having five India internationals in their team, who unfortunately did not come up with substantial performances on the day. The likes of Dinesh Karthik, Vijay Shankar, T Natarajan, Varun Chakravarthy, and R Sai Kishore had mediocre displays.
Vijay Hazare Trophy Semis
Dinesh Karthik
Skipper Dinesh Karthik could not provide stability to his team in the middle overs and got out after scoring 31 from 35. With the score reading 134/5 at that stage, that only mounted pressure on the TN team, and the rest of the batsmen to follow.
Vijay Shankar
First, he leaked 30 runs in four overs, and during the chase, he could only manage 23 from 35 balls, Vijay Shankar just couldn’t get going in the semis against Haryana. He hit only one boundary in his entire stay at the wicket.
R Sai Kishore
The India international who was part of the team at the Asian Games, had a better day than the rest of his TN teammates. He returned with bowling figures of 2/41 and then scored 29 from 31 balls. But then, that was never going to be enough for his team.
Varun Chakravarthy
The mystery spinner looked ordinary during the semis, as he bagged two wickets, giving away 67 runs that helped Haryana reach a total of 293. With the bat, he scored 16 inconsequential runs.
T Natarajan
This India international, who rose to fame during the last Australia tour, was nothing short of poor on the day. He gave away 79 runs for two wickets and was taken to the cleaners by batsmen.
Haryana vs Tamil Nadu Scorecard: Haryana 293/7 in 50 overs (Himanshu Rana 116, Yuvraj Singh 65; T Natarajan 3-79) beat Tamil Nadu 230 in 47.1 overs (Baba Indrajith 64; Anshul Kamboj 4-30, Rahul Tewatia 2-50) by 63 runs.
