Vijay Hazare Trophy 2018-19, Semi-final 1, Mumbai vs Hyderabad Review: Dominant Mumbai romp through to the finals

The game eventually panned out the way people expected it to as a rampant Mumbai side went past Hyderabad in the first semi-final at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore. Rain gods didn’t allow Mumbai to finish the match take its full course, but they were declared winners by the VJD method.

Hyderabad won the toss and elected to bat, a decision which didn’t prove to be good. They lost both their accomplished openers in the first 8 overs and Tushar Deshpande’s incredible spell with the new ball didn’t let them score significantly. Rohit Rayudu and Bavanaka Sandeep stitched a partnership at this point, which didn’t prove to be very effective.

Both players found it very difficult to rotate the strike and boundaries had dried up. Shreyas Iyer and his side did a fantastic job and getting the overs completed thick and fast, giving them no time to settle in. A flurry of wickets followed later, which included the likes of Sandeep, skipper Ambati Rayudu and Kolla Sumanth.

Rohit Rayudu, who had completed his fifty at a very mediocre strike rate, upped the ante and took on the Mumbai bowlers. Hyderabad found themselves at 150/4 in 40 overs and thanks to some great hitting from Rohit and Mehdi Hasan, they went past the 240-run mark.

Rohit completed a fabulous century and remained unbeaten on 121, which helped them post a respectable 246 runs on the board. Tushar Deshpande chipped in with a brilliant spell of 3/55 whilst Royston Dias returned with a brace.

Prithvi Shaw hammers a brilliant fifty

Rohit Sharma and Prithvi Shaw came out to open for the 41-time Ranji champions. The duo seemed pretty comfortable in the middle, especially the 18-year-old Shaw, who clobbered the Hyderabad bowlers to all parts. Their premium strike bowler Mohammed Siraj was taken for 33 runs in 3 overs thanks to the Shaw storm.

He completed a brisk half-century and although he had to face some issues with his shoulder, he battled his way through. Their partnership came to close with Mehdi Hasan removing both the openers in a span of two overs, which raised some hopes in the Hyderabad camp.

But Iyer took the onus on himself to keep the scorecard ticking and Ajinkya Rahane assisted the captain as the duo added 73 runs for the 3rd wicket. Mumbai found themselves at 155/2 in 25 overs when rain came into the picture and the play never resumed.

The VJD method came into play to decide the outcome and the par score at that point in time was 95. Mumbai were declared winners as the rain kept pouring in and the match referee had no other option but to call the playoff.

Brief Scores

Hyderabad: 246/8 in 50 overs (Rohit Rayudu 121*; Tushar Deshpande 3/55)

Mumbai: 155/2 in 25 overs (Prithvi Shaw 61, Shreyas Iyer 55*; Mehdi Hasan 2/23)

Mumbai won by 60 runs (VJD method)

Player of the match: Tushar Deshpande

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