Vijay Hazare Trophy | Rain plays spoilsport as Chhattisgarh and TN advance to the semis
It was a rather wet day in Alur as both the quarterfinal got washed away. The rain god was responsible for Mumbai’s exit as they looked in a commanding position against Chhattisgarh while Punjab never got a chance to make their case against Tamil Nadu who got benefits of their 100% record.
Mumbai vs Chattisgarh
Defending champions Mumbai crashed out of the tournament in a very unfortunate way. As the match had to be abandoned midway, Chhattisgarh went through as they had more victories (5) as of Mumbai (4) in the league stages.
Mumbai skipper Shreyas Iyer called it right at the toss and chose to bowl first. Chhattisgarh had an awful start losing its openers but Ashutosh Singh (27) and skipper Harpreet Singh (83) put up a gritty partnership of 37 runs off 97 balls to control the damage. Although Ashutosh collapsed, the skipper brought up another partnership of 135 runs with Amandeep Khare (59) to rescue their team. Harpreet fell just before the rain poured down which forced the officials to end the Chhattisgarh innings at 190. Dhawal Kulkarni was the top performer with the ball who bowled eight over giving only nine runs and bagged two wickets.
The target for Mumbai was set at 192 in 40 overs according to the VJD method. Mumbai had an excellent start as they pilled up 95 runs in the opening stand before rain stopped play. Young opener Yashasvi Jaiswal smashed a blistering 60* off 38 balls while Aditya Tate scored 31* off 31 balls. As the rain pursued play was called off and Chhattisgarh advanced to the semi-finals by virtue of more wins in the league stage.
Punjab vs Tamil Nadu
Rain again played spoilsport in the match as Tamil Nadu cruised to the semi-finals owing to the cent percent record in the league stage. The quarter-final too ended without result, Tamil Nadu will be playing Gujarat in the semifinals.
Punjab won the toss, and as expected, invited Tamil Nadu to bat first. They had a shaky start losing their openers at a score of 32 when in-form Baba Aparajith (56) steadied the ship and brought up his half-century. Although Vijay Shankar (13) and skipper (11) couldn’t contribute much, all-rounder Washington Sundar (35) helped Tamil Nadu reach 174 before rain stopped play.
Punjab were given a revised target of 195 runs in 35 overs but they got off to a wobbly start. They lost 2 wickets for 37 and they never got a chance to recover as the rain came down in the 13th over and their innings came to an abrupt stop at 52. Tamil Nadu advanced to the semifinals given their 100% record in the league stage of the tournament.
