Vijay Hazare Trophy | Mumbai and Delhi book semi final berths after easy wins
Plate group toppers Bihar were completely outplayed by domestic heavyweights Mumbai in a lopsided encounter which the former lost by nine wickets. In another quarterfinal match, Delhi won against Haryana by five wickets banking on the century performance by India’s old warhorse Gautam Gambhir.
Mumbai vs Bihar
Brief
After winning the toss Mumbai chose to field first and the decision did not take long to bear fruit as Bihar lost their first wicket at a lowly score of three runs. The fall of wickets did not stop as batsmen of Bihar team looked under immense pressure and kept losing wickets quickly. For the score of mere 49 runs Bihar had lost its half the batting order even as U Deshpande picked four out of the top five wickets and five wickets in total to run through Bihar’s batting order. Bihar’s lower order folded up rapidly and Mumbai was set a paltry target of 70 runs.
With the likes of Rohit Sharma and Shreyas Iyer adorning the Mumbai batting lineup, 70 runs would have never sufficed as a target. Mumbai batsmen scampered home within 13 overs chasing the measly target and only lost only one wicket. Rohit Sharma remained not out on 33 to take his side home. Ashutosh Aman picked the lone wicket that fell in the Mumbai innings.
Delhi vs Haryana
Brief
The match between Delhi and Haryana was also not a closely contested one as Delhi reached the semifinals after they chased down the 230 runs target set by Haryana batsmen with five wickets and more than ten overs to spare. During the chase, the Delhi openers gave their team a blistering start and put up a partnership of 54 runs for the first wicket. Unmukt Chand fell as the first wicket and he made fifteen runs. After the fall of the first wicket, there was a huge partnership of 118 runs between Gautam Gambhir and Dhruv Shorey which virtually sealed the match in Delhi’s favour. Though Haryana tried to make a comeback by picking three wickets in a quick span of 30 runs there was not enough on the board for the Haryana bowlers to defend which hurt them eventually. Gautam Gambhir made a quickfire century in 69 balls before he got out for 104 from 72 balls. Pick of the bowlers for Haryana was Rahul Tewatia who picked three wickets and spent only 32 runs.
Earlier in the first innings, Haryana had a poor start when they lost three wickets for 37 runs. But for the fourth wicket, there was a huge partnership of 116 runs between CK Bishnoi and Pramod Chandila. But as soon as both they batsmen got out the Haryana batting order slipped from 177 for four to 229