Vijay Hazare Trophy: Rahane's fighting ton in vain as Bhatia wins it for Rajasthan

Vijay Hazare Trophy: Rahane’s fighting ton in vain as Bhatia wins it for Rajasthan: Vijay Hazare Trophy’s Group A is set to witness exciting games in last round as Rajasthan defeated Mumbai by 5 wickets in a thriller. Indian batsman, Ajinkya Rahane’s ton went in vain after Rajasthan’s veteran player Rajat Bhatia with an unbeaten knock along with Ashok Menaria guided Rajasthan to their 1st ever List A victory against Mumbai.

After winning the toss, Rajasthan invited Mumbai to bat first on a track which had a lot to offer to the seamers in 1st hour of play. Captain Pankaj Singh gave early breakthroughs for his side as he sent back Shashank Singh and Shreyas Iyer in consecutive deliveries. Shashank was trapped in front of stumps while Iyer got out for a golden duck trying to play a ball swung away from him.

Pankaj bowled 6 overs in his first spell and picked up one more on the last ball as Akhil Herwadkar gave a simple catch to mid-off after scoring 30. Left-arm pacer Tanveer-Ul-Haq got the wicket for Mumbai captain Aditya Tare, who edged to 2nd slip and returned back without scoring.

With Mumbai 4 down for 44 runs in a must-win game for either sides, Ajinkya Rahane took the responsibility to lead his side with the bat. He got great support from Surya Kumar Yadav, who restricted his strokes and tried to survive long. Rahane, who had a bad mark of poor strike rotator tried to overcome it. Once he brought up his fifty in 63 balls, he picked up runs in 1s and 2s. On the other hand, Surya completed his fifty in 75 balls but got out soon as he edged one to keeper after scoring 52. Rahane and Surya’s 5th wicket stand worth 125 runs came in 148 balls.

Rahane shifted gears after Surya’s wicket as was seen taking on Nathu Singh as he hit him for a six over 3rd man region. Soon he slogged spinner for a huge six over deep midwicket. With a boundary by a flick on the leg side, Rahane brought up his century in 103 balls. On the other end, Abhishek Nayar scored a quick 25 runs before getting out to Pankaj Singh holing out at long off.

Iqbal Abdullah entertained with a 20-ball 31 which included a six over deep midwicket which sent the ball out of the ground. Rahane’s fighting knock of 114 came to an end after he edged Tanveer’s delivery to the keeper. Mumbai tail-enders Rohan Raje and Shardul extracted useful runs, as they put on 31 runs in 14 balls for the 9th wicket helping their side to put on 301 for loss of 9 wickets in 50 overs.

Chasing 302 in do or die game, Rajasthan got off to a decent start. It was Abhishek Nayar, who was part of all the first 3 wickets Rajasthan lost. Manender Singh got run-out thanks to some good effort from Nayar on the field. Later Nayar bowled a 10-over spell and gave away just 28 runs and picked up 2 crucial wickets. First he got Dishant Yagnik for 40 and then he sent back Punit Yadav for 49.

Rajat Bhatia joined Ashok Menaria at the crease when Rajasthan were 110 for 3 in 24th over. Bhatia scored at run-a-ball pace while Menaria took his time to play his shots and turned out to be dangerous as the match got progressed. Menaria brought up his fifty in 53 balls while Bhatia took 50 balls. He holed out at long-off after an impressive 86 which came in just 80 balls. He shared a stand of 145 with Bhatia which came in just 125 balls.

At the point of Menaria’s dismissal, Rajasthan still needed 47 in 6 overs. But some tight bowling from Mumbai gave them 24 runs in next 25 balls setting down the equation to 23 needed from 11 balls. Rajat Bhatia, who looked calm all the way exploded against Shardul striking him for 3 sixes in 3 balls; 2 over long-on and one over deep midwicket. Bhatia was in a hurry to finish off the game as he struck back to back boundaries to finish off the match with an over to spare. The penultimate over bowled by Shardul went for 27 runs, which turned out to be the final over of the match.

Brief Scores:

Mumbai: 301 for 9 in 50 overs (AM Rahane 114, SA Yadav 52; Pankaj Singh 4/55, Tanveer-Ul-Haq 2/55)

Rajasthan: 305 for 5 in 49 overs (Rajat Bhatia 94*, AL Menaria 86; AM Nayar 2/28)