M Shahrukh Khan’s maiden List A century and his unbroken sixth-wicket stand of 216 with Mohammed Ali against Uttar Pradesh helped Tamil Nadu get their first win in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. At the ACA-VDCA stadium in Vizag, put to bat first on a pitch that had assistance for seamers in the morning, Tamil Nadu were tottering at 68/5 in 22.1 overs before Shahrukh and the 20-year-old Ali in a 151-ball stand powered them to 284/5. The bowlers before then shut UP to 170.
From the time Shahrukh made his List A debut in 2014, he has been long living on promise. Having donned the challenging role of a finisher, in a batting unit that is not short on pedigree, he seldom had the opportunities to score big. In 48 matches, he has batted only in 33 innings and it is only during this knock that he crossed 1000 runs in List A. Whether this knock would revive his career only time will tell, but TN will hope he repays the faith invested in him.
Having lost three wickets in the first powerplay, Baba Indrajith and Vijay Shankar did their part, even though they wasted their start, by taking the sting out of the ball, facing 92 deliveries between them, setting the stage for Shahrukh.
So far in his brief career, he has shown flashes of his counter-attacking brilliance. Not the best of starters against spinners, he played both Saurabh Kumar and Vipraj Nigam safely. He lashed four boundaries (24 balls) off leg-spinner Nigam; he struck Kumar for a six in 17 deliveries.
Against the pacers, Shahrukh showed his muscle and might. Blessed with power, his horizontal-bat shots have been his staple against the pacers. It was the case on Thursday too as he took Yash Dayal, Shivam Mavi and Aaqib Khan to the cleaners. Six of his seven sixes came off the pacers as Mavi conceded 42 off the 17 deliveries he bowled to Shahrukh. Against Aaqib he went at a strike-rate of 200, scoring 30 off 15 as Dayal gave away 24 off the 11 deliveries he sent down to Shahrukh. The 13 boundaries were spaced across the park. Half a dozen sixes were hit in his most favoured area – the region between mid-wicket and long-on as he feasted on a UP attack with Ali providing him good support. A promising all-rounder, Ali played sensibly for his 76 off 75. Singles and twos contributed equally to the 8 boundaries and a six he struck.
Chasing a steep total, UP were rocked early as they lost their top three in the first 10 overs. As Nitish Rana and Priyam Garg were rebuilding the chase, Vijay Shankar bowled them in successive overs. From there a lot rode on Rinku Singh, who waged a lone battle as TN’s attack kept chipping in with wickets before Varun Chakravarthy removed UP’s captain to seal a 114-run win.
In Vizianagaram that sits not far from Vizag, Vidarbha’s pacers – Yash Thakur and Harsh Dhube—picked up seven wickets between them to dismiss Chhattisgarh for 80. Vidarbha won by seven wickets. Chandigarh too defeated Mizoram by 6 wickets at Vizianagaram.
Delhi loses to Bihar
In Hyderabad, rains in the afternoon meant, there was no result in Tripura vs Bengal and Kerala vs MP. Bihar, though, enjoyed a slice of luck as they defeated Delhi by 17 runs (VJD method). Chasing a VJD revised target of 127 from 24 overs, Delhi managed only 109/5 as their chase never really threatened Bihar.
One-wicket win for Karnataka
In Ahmedabad, Karnataka and Punjab played out a thriller with the former winning by a single wicket. When Abhilash Shetty’s five-fer restricted Punjab to 247, a routine chase was in Karnataka’s reach. But Punjab’s attack led by Arshdeep Singh didn’t give an inch. An all-round effort from Punjab meant even as veteran opener Mayank Agarwal went about constructing an innings, Karnataka kept losing wickets at regular intervals. And when Shetty fell as their ninth wicket at 203, Punjab smelt a win.
But with overs by the side and required run-rate only around 4, Agarwal farmed most of the strike while V Koushik fought at the other end. Agarwal took the calculative risks to see them ashore. with an unbeaten 139. None of his teammates made more than 29.
Saurashtra and Mumbai also posted wins. In a 245-run chase against Hyderabad, Harvik Desai’s unbeaten 125 helped Saurashtra to a six wicket win. In another match, Mumbai bowled out Arunachal Pradesh for 73 and hauled the target with 267 balls to spare, which would boost their NRR.
In the Mumbai leg of matches, Andhra, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Railways emerged victors.
Brief scores (select):
At Jaipur: Assam 75 in 19.1 ovs (Chintan Gaja 5/27, Priyajitsing Jadeja 4/23) lost to Gujarat 78/2 in 9.5 ovs. Haryana 295/6 in 50 ovs (Dinesh Bana 72, Ankit Kumar 67; Utkarsh Singh 3/22) bt Jharkhand 231 in 46.4 ovs (Atul Surwar 49; Anshul Kamboj 4/48).
At Ahmedabad: Arunachal 73 in 32.2 ovs (Shardul Thakur 2/8, Himanshu Singh 2/10) lost to Mumbai 77/1 in 5.3 ovs (Angkrish Raghuvanshi 50 n.o). Punjab 247 in 49.2 ovs (Anmolpreet Singh 51, Anmol Malhotra 42; Abhilash Shetty 5/44) lost to Karnataka 251/9 in 47.3 ovs (Mayank Agarwal 139 n.o; Abhishek Sharma 4/56).
At Vizag: Tamil Nadu 284/5 in 50 ovs (Shahrukh Khan 132 n.o, Mohammed Ali 76 n.o) bt Uttar Pradesh 170 in 32.5 ovs (Rinku Singh 55, Priyam Garg 48; Vijay Shankar 2/14).
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