All-round Saurashtra down Maharashtra, win second Vijay Hazare Trophy
Ahmedabad, Dec 2: Sheldon Jackson played one of the most important innings of his career, an unbeaten 133, to guide Saurashtra to their second Vijay Hazare Trophy title as they comfortably beat Maharashtra by five wickets in the final, here Friday.
Saurashtra's well-oiled bowling unit led by its skipper, tamed a formidable batting line-up from Maharashtra before old domestic warhorse Jackson's unbeaten century overshadowed national contender Ruturaj Gaikwad's 108 to chase down a target of 249 with 21 balls to spare.
"I think the toss did play a crucial role, we were lagging behind. It was 30-70 percent of advantage/disadvantage. After 30-40 overs, we were ahead. Batting first, 250 was a very good total," Gaikwad said after the match.
As Gaikwad rightly conceded, that toss did become one of the major deciding factors as Unadkat rightly put Maharashtra into bat.
At the onset, he led the bowling show with an exemplary opening spell (6-1-5-0) in the Powerplay after electing to field as Gaikwad batted in a painstakingly slow fashion scoring 15 off first 61 balls.
"(It is) unbelievable and yet to sink in. Winning one time is amazing but winning it second time proves that we are a champion side. Big game, big guys stepped up," the champion skipper said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
While Unadkat (1/25 with 41 dot balls) was Saurashtra's bowling hero in the first 10 overs, keeping the dangerous Gaikwad under tight leash, the last 10 overs of the Maharashtra innings belonged to all-rounder Chirag Jani. The seam bowling all-rounder's 48th over hat-trick (Saurabh Nawale, Rajvardhan Hagargekar and Vicky Ostwal) did stop Maharashtra from adding at least 20 more runs.
Bowling wicket-to-wicket, Jani cleaned up Nawale and Hangargekar and then sealed his hat-trick, trapping Vicky Ostwal plumb in front.
Maharashtra managed just two boundaries and scored 37 runs losing five wickets in the next seven overs in a crucial turning point for Saurashtra.
In the middle overs, it was another Gaikwad show as he carved his name as a 'Vijay Hazare legend' with his 12th hundred (highest in competition history) with seven fours and four sixes. He thus had three hundreds in three knock-out games but on a slowish track, Saurashtra bowlers never really let the Maharashtra batters dominate with second best score being Azim Kazi's 31.
With Saurashtra bowlers making the perfect execution against him, Gaikwad clearly fought hard for his hundred that was evident with his roaring celebration when he notched his century off a boundary against Jani.
Chasing a below-par target, Saurashtra got off to a perfect start with Jackson and Harvik Desai (50; 67 balls) stitching a 125-run opening stand in 26.4 ovrs.
Mukesh Choudhary (2/38) then gave a double blow, dismissing Desai with a short ball and Jay Gohil (0) with angular one in a space of three balls while a third wicket -- Samarth Vyas (12) was holed in the deep of Ostwal's bowling.
They lost half of their side 39.5 overs after all-rounder Prerak Mankad was cleaned up by left-arm spinner Satyajeet Bachhav as the match was evenly poised with Saurashtra needing 57 in 10.1 overs.
However Bacchav was hammered by Jackson, who hit four out of his five sixes off the left-arm orthodox's bowling.
But Maharashtra failed to apply pressure and some sloppy fielding let them down. India's U-19 World Cup Rajvardhan Hangargekar (0/70 in 9 overs) got a fair amount of pasting.
The match ended when Jackson despatched seamer Manoj Ingale over square leg for a six and played the leg glance to chase down the target.
Brief Scores:
Maharashtra 248/9; 50 overs (Ruturaj Gaikwad 108, Azim Kazi 37; Chirag Jani 3/43) lost to Saurashtra 249/5; 46.3 overs (Sheldon Jackson 133, Harvik Desai 50; Mukesh Chaudhary 2/38, Vicky Ostwal 2/20) by five wickets.
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New Zealand wins the 3rd ODI against Pakistan by 43 runs and sweeps the series
Mount Maunganui (New Zealand), Apr 5 (AP): Pakistan ended a disappointing tour of New Zealand on another somber note Saturday, losing the third one-day international by 43 runs.
While Pakistan made a bold effort to chase down New Zealand's total of 264-8, it fell short again and was dismissed for 221 in a match reduced by a wet outfield to 42 overs per side.
New Zealand fast bowler Ben Sears took 5-34, his second five-wicket total in consecutive matches.
Pakistan made a strong start to its chase despite a shocking injury to opener Imam-ul-Haq, who retired hurt in the third over after being struck in the head by a throw at the stumps.
Imam was attempting a quick single when a throw to the non-striker's end lodged in the grill of his helmet. He was clearly dazed and struggled to stand steadily before being helped from the field.
Babar Azam rallied Pakistan after the incident with a half century which, with support from Abdullah Safique (33) and Mohammad Rizwan (37), helped Pakistan to 95-1 at the midpoint of its innings.
With 10 overs remaining, Pakistan was 167-4 and well in the match: New Zealand was 165-4 at the same stage. But New Zealand took 99 runs from the last 10 overs of its innings and Pakistan couldn't match that finish.
Tayyab Tahir made 33 from 31 balls but when he holed out in the 39th over with Pakistan 218-9 the chase was all but over.
Pakistan arrived in New Zealand with a new-look squad, eager to shrug off a disappointing performance at the recent Champions Trophy which it hosted and hoping to build towards next year's T20 World Cup.
But the tourists lost the five-match T20 series 4-1 and lost the first two matches of the three-match ODI series by 73 runs and 84 runs before Saturday's defeat. The Pakistan batters mostly struggled on fast and bouncy New Zealand pitches.
“Obviously it was a disappointing series for us,” Pakistan captain Mohammad Rizwan said. "But if you look at the positives, Babar Azam is in very good touch. Looking at the bowling Sufiyan Muqeem was the guy.
“You have to give credit to New Zealand in all departments. They played very well for the last couple of months. They played well in Pakistan against us and they are true professionals.”
Earlier, opener Rhys Mariu and Michael Bracewell made half centuries and Daryl Mitchell passed 2,000 runs in ODIs as New Zealand batted first after losing the toss.
Mariu posted his maiden half century in his second ODI and went on to make 58 from 61 balls. Mitchell came into the match with 1,998 runs in one-day internationals with finished with 2,041 runs from 52 matches in which he averages 49.7.
Captain Bracewell finished strongly, making 59 from 40 balls.
