Vijay Hazare Trophy : Axar Patel guides Gujarat to the semis , while UP clinch a cliff hanger against Tamil Nadu

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Bengaluru , December 24 : Axar Patel shined with both bat and ball as Gujarat defeated Vidarbha  by two wickets  to qualify for the semis of the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Axar  scored a unbeaten 36 and also picked up two wickets as Gujarat edged past Vidarbha at the Alur Cricket Stadium in Bengaluru.

Vidarbha captain Subramaniyam Badrinath won the toss and chose to bat first. Vidarbha started off well with fifties from opener Faiz Fazal(52) and Jitesh Sharma( 51). Vidarbha were 111 for 2 after losing the wickets of both the openers. Badrinath tried to cut a full length ball off  Rujul Bhatt and was bowled. Axar Patel struck in the 32nd over trapping Ravi Jangid leg before wicket.  Ganesh Satish fought a lone battle with a useful 47 from 66 balls but with no batsman out there to help him he couldn’t do much as Vidarbha bowled out for a mere 195. Akshar Patel’s bowling spell read 10-2-22-2. Jasprit Bumrah picked four wickets for Vidarbha.

Chasing a score of 195 Gujarat rode on a half century from former India keeper Parthiv Patel. He scored 57 runs of 58 balls including 4 fours. Gujarat’s batting line up tumbled a little as left-arm medium Ravikumar Thakur and off-spinner Akshay Wakhare picked three wickets each. But Axar Patel kept his cool to finish the match as he chipped in a handful 36. Gujrat won the match by 2 wickets .

Ashwin-in-Vijay-Hazare-Trop

In another match Tamil Nadu rode on an all round performance  from Rajagopal Satish in a low scoring match to defeat Uttar Pradesh by 1 wicket  and qualify  for  the Semis at the Chinnaswamy Stadium .

Uttar Pradesh won the toss and opted to bat first but their batting collapsed like a pack of cards as they could manage only 168 runs . RK singh was the highest scorer for UP with 60 runs . Leggie Piyush Chawla contributed a modest 29.

Batting second Tamil Nadu started their chase in a poor fashion as they lost  Dinesh Karthik (0), Abhinav Mukund (2), Baba Aparajith (9) and L Balaji (0) for just 17 runs on the scoresheet. India discard Praveen Kumar striked in his  first over  removing Dinesh Karthick. Bhubaneshar Kumar then sent back Mukund, Aparajith and Balaji to rattle the Tamil Nadu batting line up.

But  Sathish  stood firm and partnered Indrajith and Ashwin for a vital 37 and 35 run stand respectively  for the  sixth and eighth wicket to seal the match.

Brief Scores: Uttar Pradesh 168 (48.2 overs) (RK Singh 60; L.Balaji 3/32) lost to Tamil Nadu 169/9 (41.3 overs) (B.Indrajith 48; Bhuvaneshwar Kumar 3/25), by 1 wicket.

Brief Scores: Vidarbha 195 (48.0 overs) (Faiz Fazal 52; Jasprit Bumrah 4/38) lost to Gujarat 198/8 (48.1 overs) (Parthiv Patel 57, Axar Patel 36*; Wakhare 3/30), by 2 wickets.