Vijay Hazare Trophy | Bowlers and Aditya Tare help Mumbai beat Delhi in summit clash
Wicketkeeper-batsman Aditya Tare and the Mumbai pacers shone in the final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy as they beat Delhi by four wickets in Bengaluru. Mumbai chased down the target of 178 runs in 35 overs by losing only six wickets thanks to Tare and Siddhesh Lad’s fifth-wicket stand.
Brief Scores: Delhi 177/10 from 45.4 overs (Himmat Singh 41, Dhruv Shorey 31; Shivam Dubey 3/29, Dhawal Kulkarni 3/30) lost to Mumbai 180/6 from 35 overs (Aditya Tare 71, Siddhesh Lad 48; Navdeep Saini 3/53) by 4 wickets
Mumbai bowlers vindicated Shreyas Iyer’s decision of bowling first as they got rid of three Delhi batsmen as early as in the sixth over when the scorecard was reading 21/3. Captain Gautam Gambhir (1) was first to depart in the second over as he sliced the ball into the hands of Prithvi Shaw at third man off Tushar Deshpande’s bowling. Gambhir was soon followed by his opening partner Unmukt Chand (13) who cut a short ball from Dhawal Kulkarni only to find Ajinkya Rahane’s safe hands at point. Manan Sharma (5) got out in the next over by edging the ball into Aditya Tare’s gloves.
Nitish Rana (13) and Dhruv Shorey then tried to help Delhi cone out of troubled waters but Rana departed early after adding 39 runs for the fourth wicket with Shorey, who eventually got out stumped on 31 five overs later. Himmat Singh batted sensibly in the middle overs but could only manage 41 off 65 deliveries before he edged one to Tare while attempting a slog against medium-pacer Shivam Dubey.
Pawan Negi and Suboth Bhati’s quick cameo helped Delhi to register a respectable total of 177 in 45.4 overs. Negi got retired hurt for 21 after hitting two fours and one six. He got hit on the glove while attempting a short-pitched delivery from Deshpande in the 36th over and had to go off the field one over later. Bhati (25) was the last man to depart for Delhi after hitting one boundary and three sixes in his cameo. Kulkarni and Dubey ended with three wickets each for Mumbai in the first half of the game.
Defending a low total, the Delhi pacers were off to a great start as well. They landed the ball in right areas to trouble the Mumbai batsmen. Navdeep Saini got rid of Prithvi Shaw off the third ball of the innings after conceding two back-to-back boundaries. Saini picked up two more wickets when he sent back Ajinkya Rahane and (10) and Suryakumar Yadav (4) in the fifth over when the score was only 25. Rahane got LBW while Yadav was caught at second slip after hitting a four off the previous ball.
Saini almost picked up Siddhesh Lad in the seventh over.
Aditya Tare and Lad then combined together with a good stand worth 105 runs for the fifth wicket and that recovered Mumbai. Tare survived the scare on a couple of occasions when the third umpire came to his rescue in caught behind and run-out chances. He got out trapped LBW off Manan Sharma’s bowling after a well-made 71 off 89 deliveries which included 13 fours and one six.
Dubey then joined Lad at the crease and scored quick-fire 19 runs. Lad tried to hit the winning runs and get to his fifty but holed out for 48 with only two runs to win. Dhawal Kulkarni and Dubey remained not out at the crease as Mumbai won the limited overs tournament after a decade with 15 overs to spare in the final.