Vishvaraj Jadeja’s splendid unbeaten 165 guided Saurashtra to a dominant nine-wicket victory over Punjab, securing their spot in the Vijay Hazare Trophy final on Friday.
Saurashtra will compete against Vidarbha in the final on Sunday.
Vijay Hazare Trophy Semi-Final: Saurashtra Vs Punjab – Highlights
How Saurashtra Beat Punjab?
Saurashtra’s bowlers did an excellent job in restricting Punjab to a modest total of 291. Jadeja then took apart the opposition bowlers with his 127-ball innings, hitting 18 fours and 3 sixes.
Jadeja received strong support from his opening partner Harvik Desai (64), with whom he shared a 172-run stand in just 23 overs, and from Prerak Mankad (52 not out), as Saurashtra chased down the target in just 39.3 overs.
Jadeja and Mankad added 121 runs for the
unbroken second-wicket partnership.
Saurashtra’s chase began on a fortunate note, as they were awarded five penalty runs due to Punjab batters running on the restricted areas. Saurashtra capitalised on this luck with an impressive batting performance.
Jadeja and Desai scored 23 runs off pacer Krish Bhagat in the seventh over and maintained the momentum throughout. Dropped when the team score was 120, Jadeja reached his fifty in 29 balls and took another 45 balls to complete his third List A hundred.
Though Desai fell, cutting pacer Gurnoor Brar to Naman Dhir at point, it was a minor setback as Jadeja reached his maiden 150 in List A matches and then struck the winning boundary off Dhir.
Earlier, Punjab squandered a strong start to finish with a below-par total. Harnoor Singh and captain Prabhsimran Singh added 60 runs for the opening wicket before Harnoor was run out. The second-wicket partnership was more productive, with 109 runs between Prabhsimran and Anmolpreet Singh.
Prabhsimran played aggressively, targeting the leg-side with big shots, but fell to a massive heave off pacer Chirag Jani, caught by a substitute fielder in the deep. Anmolpreet continued to score steadily, reaching his century in 103 balls, highlighted by two consecutive fours off Jani, followed by a two and a single.
Anmolpreet’s knock helped Punjab recover from losing two wickets — Naman Dhir and Nehal Wadhera — in consecutive balls in the 36th over, reaching 275 for four in the 47th over. However, Anmolpreet’s dismissal by Chetan Sakariya triggered a collapse, with Punjab losing their last five wickets for just 16 runs due to Sakariya’s excellent death bowling.
This collapse proved decisive as Saurashtra comfortably chased down the target under lights, where the Punjab bowlers found no assistance.
(With inputs from Agencies)
