M S Dhoni-led Jharkhand entered the semifinals of the Vijay Hazare Trophy after outplaying Vidarbha by six wickets at the Palam Ground on Wednesday, PTI reported.
Choosing to bat, Vidarbha were in dire straits at 87/7 before Ravi Jangid came up with a fighting 62 to take his team to 159/9 in 50 overs.
Jharkhand’s potent pacers Varun Aaron, Rahul Shukla and Rahul Shukla tested the opposition with short-pitched stuff on a lifeless track, sharing four wickets among themselves.
Later, Jharkhand openers Pratyush Singh (33) and Ishan Kishan (35) provided a solid start before Dhoni (18*) and Ishank Jaggi (41*) completed the chase in 45.1 overs.
It was a rather fitting end to the game with Dhoni hitting a straight six off Ganesh Satish to finish the game.
Bengal beat Maharashtra in last-over thriller
Bengal edged out Maharashtra in a thrilling last-over finish to enter the semi-finals of the Vijay Hazare Trophy on Wednesday. Needing seven runs off the last over, the topsy-turvy over saw Bengal’s Amir Gani sealed victory off the penultimate ball with a boundary.
Batting first, Maharashtra set Bengal a stiff target of 319 runs on back of fine 95-run knock by lower-order batsman Rahul Tripathi. He was supported by Nikhil Naik (63). The duo shared a 116-run stand for the fifth wicket.
In reply, Bengal got off to a good start with opener Srivats Goswami (74) getting them past the 150-run mark. He found support from the middle-order with Agniv Pan (47) and Manoj Tiwary (47) pitching in.
Maharashtra skipper Kedar Jadhav brought the game back on an even keel after sending Goswami and Tiwary back in the hut.
A 117-run partnership by Sudip Chatterjee (60) and Anustup Majumdar (66) for the fifth wicket put Bengal in a strong position in the chase.
Majumdar’s exit in the 49th over stretched the game into the last over. Bengal lost Kanishk Seth (2) on the third ball of the last over to further complicate matters.
Coming in to bat at six down, Gani took control of the situation. He ran a quick two runs immediately after taking the crease and followed it up with a boundary to seal the thrilling win.