Vijay Hazare Trophy | Parthiv-Panchal seal the deal for Gujarat; KL Rahul stars in Karnataka’s easy win

In a rain-curtailed encounter at the Just Cricket Academy Ground in Bengaluru, Gujarat opted to bowl first. That proved to be a good decision as Chintan Gaja reduced the team from the national capital to 17/2 in 7.1 overs, but Dhruv Shorey arrested the collapse with stoicism. He, alongside, Nitish Rana, forged a 90-run partnership to give Delhi a respectable position before Arzan Nagwaswalla inflicted a middle-order collapse. Some useful contributions from Lalit Yadav and Himmat Singh helped Delhi crossed past 200, with the team ending with 233 in the stipulated 49 overs.

Two star batsmen of the Gujarat line-up, Parthiv Patel and Priyank Panchal started brilliantly in the run-chase, adding 150 runs for the first wicket. Once Patel was dismissed by scoring 76, gave impetus to the innings. Simarjeet Singh was picking wickets but he failed to be parsimonious, resulting in Gujarat leading the surge at all points in the game. With Raval, Axar Patel was the unbeaten batsman as Gujarat moved past the target in the 38th over. 

In what was going to be a walking win for Karnataka, Puducherry lower-order made them bite the dust for the longest time today, pushing the game to its very limit. But resistance can do so much, as once Sagar Trivedi and Vikneshwaran Marimuthu were back in the hut, there was so much Fabid Ahmed could do alone. The underperformance of the top-order had to be the major contention in the process, leaving Puducherry at 41/6 at a point. That they could reach 207 was a lesson in grit.