Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh has entered into the finals of Vijay Hazare Trophy 2021 after comfortably defeating Gujrat by five wickets on Thursday. UP will now face Mumbai in the finals of the Vijay Hazare Trophy to be played on March 14 in Delhi.
Losing the toss, UP were asked to bowl first on a rather batting friendly wicket Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi. However, the left-armer Dayal troubled batsmen quite a bit, while Aaqib was pretty accurate too. The spinners/slower bowlers too were relentless. Shivam Sharma bowling tight lines, while Akshdeep Nath was really impressive with his variations. But for a 66-run sixth wicket stand between Het Patel and Piyush Chawla, things would have been worse for Gujarat. Karan Sharma was really good with his bowling changes, always looking for wickets.
UP were given a mediocre target of 185 runs in their stipulated 50 overs to enter into the finals of Vijay Hazare Trophy. However, UP did not had a great start with opener Samarth Singh was caught off the bowling by Chintan Gaja in fifth over of the second inning. The second and third wicket also fell in quick succession with UP still needing more 142 runs to win.
The inning was then handled by Lucknow’s Akshdeep Nath equally well supported by team captain Karan Sharma both of them stitched a partnership of 76 runs before Karan Sharma got stumped out by off-spinner Karan Patel. But, Akshdeep Nath ensured that no more hiccups are faced.
The batter went on to score 71 runs off 104 balls (8 boundaries) and was adjudged man of the match.
