The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Saurashtra enters final

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 09, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Saurashtra enters final

VISAKHAPATNAM: Saurashtra entered the Vijay Hazare Trophy final, beating Vidarbha by five wickets in the semifinals at the ACA-VDCA Stadium here on Tuesday. Saurashtra will now face Bengal on Thursday.

Vidarbha, opting to bat, managed only 212 against some disciplined bowling. Saurashtra lost its first wicket in the fourth over, but the two left-handers, opener Chirag R. Pathak (58, 4x11) and Jaidev N. Shah (28, 3x4, 1x6) were aggressive and added 81 for the second wicket off 84 balls.

After Viraj Kadbe removed the two in the space of 10 balls, the three left-handers that followed played it safe as they had overs to reach the target. Sitanshu H. Kotak, who remained not out on 53 (3x4) and Pratik S. Mehta (33) added 72 for the fifth wicket.

Earlier in the morning, the loss of two quick wickets pushed Vidarbha onto the back foot. Opener and wicketkeeper Amit Paunikar (63, 4x7) and left-handed Ravi Jangid (51, 4x6) added 119 runs off 159 balls for the third wicket.

For Saurashtra left-arm spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Rakesh V. Dhruve picked up three and two wickets.

The scores: Vidarbha 212 for nine in 50 overs (Amit Paunikar 63, Ravi Jangid 51) lost to Saurashtra 216 for five in 47.3 overs (Chirag R. Pathak 58, Sitanshu H. Kotak 53). — Special Correspondent

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport