The first round of the quarterfinal clashes of the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy 2015-16 Bengaluru witnessed the Harbhajan Singh-led Punjab get knocked out of the one-day tournament in a thrilling contest at the Alur Cricket Stadium. At the other venue, the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Delhi stormed into the semis as the Ishant Sharma-led attack helped the team triumph over Jharkhand.
Highlights of the day:Jharkhand vs Delhi: Delhi 225/10 in 50 overs (N Rana 44, P Negi 38*, R Shukla 3/60) beat Jharkhand 126/10 in 38 overs (MS Dhoni 70 not out, S Bhati 4/21, N Saini 3/31, Ishant Sharma 2/21) by 99 runs.
MS Dhoni was left stranded on 70 as the Delhi pacers bowled the Gautam Gambhir-led team to a resounding win.
After Ankit Dabas had claimed both the Delhi openers to leave the team at 61 for two, Varun Aaron had followed up with the wickets of Milind and Unmukt Chand to leave Delhi on 100 for five. However, Nitish Rana's 76-ball 44 and Pawan Negi’s quick-fire 16-ball 38 not out lifted the team to a competitive score before being bowled out off the last ball.
Defending the 225-run total, Navdeep Saini and Ishant Sharma claimed two wickets each to leave Jharkhand reeling at nine for four. The team never recovered from the early blows as Dhoni kept running out of partners. With his maiden four-for in List A cricket, Subodh Bhati wrapped-up the Jharkhand innings for 126 runs.
The longest partnership for the Varun Aaron-led side was for the last wicket for 29 runs as Vikash strove to partner Dhoni in extending the innings.
Himachal Pradesh vs Punjab: Punjab 263/8 in 50 overs (M Singh 119, G Mann 35, P Jaswal 3/50, R Dhawan 3/60) lost to HP 266/5 in 49.2 overs (R Bist 109*, R Dhawan 41, S Kaul 3/42) by 5 wickets
Mandeep Singh's century went in vain as Robin Bist anchored Himachal Pradesh to a five-wicket win with an unbeaten 109-run knock.
Coming to the crease in the fourth over with 18 runs on the board, the top-order batsman built useful partnerships with the middle-order to keep HP on course for the target. His 102-run stand with Rishi Dhawan (41) kept balance in HP's favour. Bist then stitched a 64-run partnership with N Gangta and then took the team across the line with B Sharma. With wickets in hand, the team was comfortably placed as the match entered the death overs and claimed victory with four balls to spare.
Earlier, after HP had elected to field, Rishi Dhawan and P Jaswal claimed three wickets each as that kept Punjab from consolidating partnerships. While wickets fell at the other end, Mandeep, who had come in to bat three balls into the match held the innings together with a 145-ball knock until departing with three balls left in the innings. Skipper Harbhajan Singh's late onslaught (25 off 13) gave the team a late boost to set HP a competitive target.
Follow the stars:
Yuvraj Singh scored five off 16 balls against HP and conceded 29 runs in five overs.
Harbhajan Singh claimed the only wicket of Paras Dogra.
Gautam Gambhir scored 20 runs in Delhi's quarterfinal clash against Jharkhand.
Shikhar Dhawan made 27 off 42 balls before being stumped by MS Dhoni off Ankit Dabas.
