Saurashtra add Vijay Hazare Trophy to their cabinet | Cricket News – Times of India

Ruturaj Gaikwad scored his third consecutive hundred in the Vijay Hazare Trophy knockouts, but didn’t put in a dive to not get run-out. On the other hand, Sheldon Jackson (133 not out) dived while taking on the fielder for a quick single. That stretch from one and inability from the other made all the difference to the result.
In a game of thin margins, Saurashtra held their nerve to beat Maharashtra and pocket the Vijay Hazare Trophy for the second time in Ahmedabad on Friday. The margin of win –- chasing 248 –- was by five wickets with 3.3 overs to spare. But it was much closer than that.
Maharashtra were playing their first Hazare final and skipper Ruturaj said the loss of toss made it a 30:70
game for them. They had to come up with a flawless performance but fell short as the lack of meaningful batting depth coupled with average bowling attack for the unhelpful afternoon conditions came to the fore.

Supremely confident about his defensive game as well as attacking one, Ruturaj scored a vintage knock (108 off 131b, 7x4s, 1×6). He respected the seaming conditions in the morning, and then shifted gears (first fifty off 96 balls, second off 29) for his fourth hundred in the tournament and sixth of the ongoing domestic season.
At 199/4 after 42 overs, Saurashtra’s Prerak Mankad – on a painkiller after landing on his shoulder while fielding – ran to his left from deep mid-wicket and came up with a throw on top of the stumps at the non-striker’s end. Ruturaj was a tad slow and the throw was bang on the money.
With Ruturaj back in the hut, Maharashtra fell at least 30 runs short of putting a winning total.
Brief Scores:Saurashtra 249 for 5 (Jackson 133*, Desai 50, Jani 30*, Ostwal 2-20, Choudhary 2-38) beat Maharashtra 248 for 9 (Gaikwad 108, Kazi 37, Shaikh 31*, Jani 3-43) by five wickets.