Bengaluru : Delhi cruised into the final of Vijay Hazare cricket tournament as they rode on Unmukt Chand’s unbeaten 80 to register a six-wicket victory over Himachal Pradesh in the first semi-final on Saturday. After Delhi captain Gautam Gambhir chose to field, his bowlers restricted Himachal to 200 for nine in 50 overs at the M Chinnaswamy stadium.Chasing a modest total of 201, Delhi were helped by Chand’s 86-ball knock, which was decorated with seven boundaries and two sixes.
India opener Shikhar Dhawan was dismissed for 39 by Bipul Sharma, who had the southpaw foxed by his orthodox left-arm spin. Dhawan took 53 balls to score those runs and found the fence on five occasions. Gautam Gambhir, Rishabh Pant and Milind made 16, 18 and 10, respectively, before Chand and Nitish Rana (19 not out) guided Delhi past Himachal total with 8.5 overs to spare. Meanwhile, on other hand, Left-arm spinner Axar Patel wreaked havoc recording a career-best List A figures of 6/43 as Gujarat beat Tamil Nadu by 31 runs. Batting first, Gujarat scored a decent 248/8 with useful contributions from middle-order batsmen Chirag Gandhi (71) and Manprit Juneja (74). Tamil Nadu skipper Ravichandran Ashwin was the most successful bowler with 3/51 in 10 overs. In reply, Tamil Nadu were all out for 217 in 47.3 overs as Axar’s figures read 10-1-43-6.
