Vijay Hazare Trophy Final: Himachal Pradesh beat Tamil Nadu to win maiden domestic title | Cricket News – Times of India

JAIPUR: Tamil Nadu’s juggernaut came to a halt as calm and composed Shubham Arora maneuvered and guided Himachal Pradesh with a glorious unbeaten 136 off 131 balls to help them clinch their first Vijay Hazare Trophy title at the SMS Stadium on Sunday.
It is also Himachal’s first-ever domestic title. Rishi Dhawan’s team defeated the southern outfit by 11 runs after bad light stopped the play and the VJD method was applied to decide the winner. Himachal were well on course towards victory and needed 16 from 15 balls with six wickets in hand when the umpires decided to wrap up.

Chasing formidable 315, Himachal got off the blocks quickly and despite losing three wickets between ninth and 15 over, 24-year-old opener Shubham’s focus diminished not a jot. En route his maiden List A century, he took Amit Kumar (74 off 79 balls) along in his effort to keep the team on the track. It appeared as if Shubham’s confidence, that grew with every passing delivery, single-handedly overpowered Tamil Nadu.
Later, in the 42nd over, in-form Dhawan joined hands with the opener and knocked off 42 not out from 23 deliveries.
The Himachal wicketkeeper batter Shubham must be a relieved man as he was the culprit of Dinesh Karthik’s dropped catch when the latter was on 54 before he went on to score a powerful knock of 116 off 103 balls.

Earlier, put into bat, Karthik and his accomplice Baba Indrajith pulled Tamil Nadu back into the game after an early collapse that saw them tottering at 40/4 in 14.3 overs. Courtesy the duo’s fifth wicket partnership of 202 from 167 balls, the team found a firm footing. Cherry on the cake was Shahrukh Khan’s hurricane innings off 42 off 21 balls as they rounded up 314.
The first one hour of the match, that included winning the toss and opting to field first, was the time when Dhawan’s Himachal made early inroads and looked raring to challenge the opponents. Fresh pitch with early morning dew and wavering clouds, aided their bowlers.
An inswinging delivery by Himachal’s Vinay Galetiya wrecked opener Baba Aprajith’s wickets as the first breakthrough came in the very first over.
Soon after, in-form Dhawan and Pankaj Jaswal struck, snaring Narayan Jagadeesan and R Sai Kishore, respectively. The edges flew, and kept the ‘keeper and the slip fielder Prashant Chopra busy. After the fourth dismissal, effected by the Himachal skipper, that saw Sai Kishore being caught at the first slip, Karthik went after the bowlers. The case in point is the 37th over when the 36-year-old smacked 6,4,6,0,1, and moved from 68 to 84.
But in the end, every effort looked pale in comparison to Himachal batter Shubham’s match-winning knock.