Vijay Hazare Trophy 2017-18, Day 13- Round Up

Maharashtra, Bengal and UP won their respective matches on the last day of the group stages.

Published - 17 Feb 2018, 20:57 IST | Updated - 17 Feb 2018, 20:57 IST

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The final day of the group stage in the Vijay Hazare Trophy started with an unparalleled encounter between Bengal and Himachal Pradesh which went all down to the wire but in the end, one will have to say, the Bengal team had too much firepower and managed to upstage Himachal’s hope of entering the knockout stages.

Prashant Chopra, the skipper of Himachal Pradesh won the toss and elected to bat first in an all-important encounter. However, the decision fell in favour of the opposition as the wickets kept tumbling from one end, and the team had nothing to cheer. With Priyanshu Khanduri’s 74-run knock, HP posted a reasonably good total on the board. In reply, Abhimanyu Easwaran and the skipper Manoj Tiwary played to their strengths which eventually led them to restrict the opposition from entering the latter stages.

The other encounter was played between Kerela and Maharashtra which was an opportunity for one of the teams to qualify for the quarterfinals. The Maharashtra Team was able to put up a better show which eventually helped them to finish as the table toppers. Batting first, Maharashtra posted 273 runs on the board with decent cameos from their first seven batsmen. In reply, Shrikant Mundhe bowled to his strengths and was able to pitch the ball in right areas which not only helped him register a five-wicket haul but also to bundle out the opposition for just 175 runs.

The last of Group B encounter was between Uttar Pradesh and Tripura where the Tripura Team once again suffered a humiliating loss and thus finished the group stages with no wins. On the other hand, having lost the last encounter, Uttar Pradesh needed someone to step up and play through the innings. Today it was their skipper Akshdeep Nath and Rinku Singh who played beautifully for their 87 and 91 runs and led their team to a mammoth total of 357 runs. In reply, Tripura fought hard but fell short by 61 runs.