AHMEDABAD: An out of sorts Delhi, plagued by some questionable team selections, were knocked out of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, losing by 51 runs to Uttarakhand in their final group league stage game here on Tuesday. With four defeats from seven games, Delhi with 12 points, finished fifth in Group C. Haryana, with 28 points and an all-win record, finished with highest points among all participating states. The six teams to directly qualify for the quarterfinals are Haryana (28 points), Rajasthan (24), Karnataka (24), Vidarbha (20), Mumbai (20) and Tamil Nadu (20). The four teams to qualify for the pre-quarterfinals are Bengal (20), Gujarat (20), Kerala (20) and Maharashtra (20).
Despite bowling out Uttarakhand for 221 in 45.5 overs with pacer Navdeep Saini (3/23) and left-arm spinner Harsh Tyagi (3/30) doing the bulk of the damage, it was yet another shoddy batting show by young Delhi batters as they were bowled out for 170 in 46.2 overs. The selection committee as well as the team management will have some answering to do as to how Kshitiz Sharma, who has an average of less than 30 (29.86) in 22 List A games with just three fifty-plus scores, has been given the opportunity to open.
Kshitiz didn’t have the skills to tackle Mumbai Indians’ last season’s find Akash Madhwal, who exposed the batter’s lack of skill. So bare is the cupboard that a dogged slow-coach red-ball player like Jonty Sidhu (23 off 56 balls) has been entrusted with the duty of opening the batting. Save for Ayush Badoni (87 off 97 balls) and Himmat Singh, who failed on Tuesday but otherwise has been impressive, none of the Delhi batters have covered themselves in glory.
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu beat Nagaland by ten wickets after dismissing them for 69. Varun C took five wickets for just nine runs. Karnataka overpowered Mizoram as V Koushik took 4/7, restricting the opponents to 124. Kerala, on the other hand, fell short by 18 runs against Railways despite skipper Sanju Samson scoring 128 runs. Select results: Uttarakhand 221 in 45.5 ovs (Avneesh 85, Tare 58, Saini 3/23, Tyagi 3/30) bt Delhi 170 in 46.2 overs (Badoni 87, Madhwal 2/37); Odisha 199/9 in 50 ovs (Biswal 64, Avasthi 3/30) bt Mumbai 113 in 32.2 overs (Royston 24, Debabrata 2/20, Rajesh 2/21); Nagaland 69 in 19.4 ovs (Varun 5/9) lost to Tamil Nadu 73/0 in 7.5 ovs; Mizoram 124 in 37.2 ovs (Koushik 4/7) lost to Karnataka 126/4 in 17.1 ovs (Mayank 48 n.o); Meghalaya 158 in 41.1 ovs lost to Hyderabad 161/1 in 18.4 ovs (Tanmay 49); Railways 255/5 in 50 ovs (Sahab Yuvraj Singh 121) bt Kerala 237/8 in 50 ovs (Samson 128).
