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Rajkot,December 16 : Uttar Pradesh recovered from their initial batting woes to overpower a strong Saurashtra side by 5 wickets in their Vijay Hazare Trophy tie in Rajkot. Despite the failure of  captain Suresh Raina , Uttar Pradesh cruised to a convincing win against the hosts . Winning the toss and putting the opposition to bat first, seemed to have worked well for U.P captain Suresh Raina. The home side did not get off to the best of starts, as they were reduced to 7/3 in the initial part of their batting innings. However, Indian Test batsman Cheteshwar Pujara steadied things in the middle, scoring a handy 41. That also proved to be the highest score in the Saurashtra batting line up, as none of the other batsmen looked settled. Aarpit Vasavada and Kamlesh Makvana played useful knocks to propel their team to some respectable total. Chasing the modest total, the visitors lost their opener Saurabh Dubey in the very second delivery of the innings. But, Shubham Chaubey played a classy, unbeaten knock of 85, to finish things off for UP. Meanwhile in another low-scoring encounter, Himachal Pradesh comfortably overhauled Goa modest total of 184 with more than 20 overs to spare. Just like the previous match, the winning side won the toss and put the opposition to bat first. Despite getting off to a good start, Goa scrambled in the middle overs and were eventually dismissed for a mere 184. In reply, Himachal Pradesh got off to a flier, as their opening pair scored briskly. Prashant Chopra scored 67 in just 53 balls, and he was provided with good support from the other end by Ankush Bains. It was then left to the pair of Paras Dogra and Rishi Dhawan to finish things for Himachal Pradesh.   Brief Scores: Saurashtra 189 (48.5 ov) lost to Uttar Pradesh 191/5 (44.4 ov) by 5 wickets.                         Goa 184 (45.4 ov) lost to Himachal Pradesh 187/3 (29.2 ov) by 7 wickets.