Defending champion Mumbai sneaked into the Vijay Hazare Trophy quarterfinals, pipping Uttar Pradesh (UP) on Net Run Rate. The two sides, both of whom had suffered two washouts, were tied on 20 points but UP had the edge with a match in hand. It however couldn’t capitalise, losing its final fixture on Thursday against Haryana by 20 runs to fall behind Mumbai.
The NRR was the tie-breaker since the two teams had the same number of wins but were placed in different groups. In the event of them being part of the same group, head-to-head would have taken precedence. This is how Delhi finished second ahead of Punjab, despite having the same number of wins and an inferior NRR.
Format
Vijay Hazare Trophy follows a format where the top-five from a combined Elite Group A & B table qualify for the quarterfinals. Of the five, three are from Group A (Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Mumbai). Delhi and Uttar Pradesh have emerged from Group B but persistent rain washed out many a match in Vadodara (some were rescheduled later) and rendered the conditions tricky in those contests that went ahead.
It prompted veteran Wasim Jaffer to even tweet thus: “Absolutely unfit pitches to play in List ‘A’ matches in Vadodra.@BCCI #motibaug #barodacricketassociation.”
From Group C, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat were the top-two qualifiers, with Puducherry rounding off the line-up by coming through from the Plate group.
