Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu clinched wins over Services and Saurashtra in the semi-finals of the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2021-22 on December 24 to enter the tournament final. The two results set up an exciting summit clash on December 26 between HP and TN.
In the first semi-final played at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur, HP dominated the Services after an all-round display. Winning the toss and opting to bowl first, HP posted a stiff total of 281/6 in their 50 overs before dismissing Services for just 204.
Opening batter Prashant Chopra (78) and skipper Rishi Dhawan (84) played stand-out knocks for Himachal in the first half, where Digvijay Rangi (37) and Akash Vasisht (45*) also made useful contributions.
Services had Raj Bahadur (2/52) bowling well, with Diwesh Pathania (1/50) and Rahul Singh (1/35) also chipping in via miserly spells. But they lacked enough depth in their attack to put HP under real pressure.
This is where HP were different, as they not only had skipper Dhawan taking a four-fer (4/27) but also the likes of Sidharth Sharma (2/34) and Akash Vasisht (2/28) bagging two wickets apiece. Even Vinay Galetiya (0/35) bowled with good control and discipline.
Services’ batting unit struggled big-time against some quality bowling. Captain Rajat Paliwal (55), opening batter Ravi Chauhan (45) and Devender Lohchab (34) were the only ones to show some resistance as they crumbled for just over 200 runs.
The other semi-final played between Tamil Nadu and Saurashtra, however, was a close affair. Saurashtra lost by two wickets despite posting a huge total of 310/8 in their 50 overs after losing the toss and being made to bat first.
Wicketkeeper-batter Sheldon Jackson (134) struck an exceptional hundred and was ably supported at the task with crucial half-centuries by Vishvaraj Jadeja (52) and Arpit Vasavda (57). But it seems Saurashtra were 10-15 runs short in the end as their bowlers could never really put TN under the pressure of the asking rate.
Like Jackson for Saurashtra, Baba Aparajith also scored a fantastic hundred (122) for TN, who also had Baba Indrajith (50), skipper Dinesh Karthik (31) and Washington Sundar (70) making important contributions. TN reached home on the final delivery of the game, responding to Saurashtra’s 310/8 with 314/8.
Chetan Sakariya picked up a rare List A five-fer (5/62), but it proved insufficient for Saurashtra to win. In the first half, skipper Vijay Shankar (4/72) and R Silambarasan (3/54) were amongst the wickets for TN in a high-scoring fixture.
