Vijay Hazare Trophy 2021: Uttar Pradesh defeated Gujarat to reach the finals after 16 years

A useful half-century, along with tight seam-up stuff from Akshdeep Nath, helped Uttar Pradesh beat Gujarat by five wickets to reach the Vijay Hazare Trophy final after 16 years. They will take on Mumbai in the final at the Feroz Shah Kotla on Sunday. To bat at Ferozeshah Kotla, the Gujarat top-order made a simple performance and found it tough against some relentless Uttar Pradesh bowling attack in which Nath took 184 for 48.1 overs with Nath taking 1 for 29 in 6 overs. Passers Yash Fayal and Aaqib Khan finish with three and two scallops respectively.

In response, Nath avoided some early hiccups before control with a 104-ball 71 (8×4) count, while in-form Upendra Yadav sealed the issue with 31 not out off 25 balls.

Yadav came to the crease after winning the quarterfinal against Delhi by 112 runs and dismissed the UP captain Karn Sharma (38) and Akshdeep early.

Yadav held his nerves and ensured there were no more setbacks as he hit a six and three fours off 44 balls to win. UP last made it to the finals in the 2004–05 season when they shared the trophy with Tamil Nadu after a closing.

UP captain Sharma said that he carried out his plans well to ensure an easy victory. Sharma said, “Initially, the idea of ​​the ball was to fall wicket by wicket and not to loose any kind of loose ball. We are just sticking to our plan and it results in success.”

Gujarat captain Priyank Panchal attributed it to the slow batting and said that he had dropped his first few wickets. “Initially the batting was poor and we took two-three wickets. We got the score to 240 runs. This can increase the odds for them,” he said.

Asked if they decide to bat first, he said: “We were positive and confident about our batting, but those early few wickets made us expensive.”

Promoted

UP’s new ball pair Dayal (3/71) and Aqib (2/22) shared five wickets between them and it was their discipline and control that did not allow Gujarat to break free. The only relief came to Hate Patel, who shared a 66-run partnership for Gujarat in an 87-run 60-run (5×4) innings.

Brief Score: Gujarat 184; 48.1 overs (Het Patel 60, Piyush Chawla 32; Yash Dayal 3/34, Aqib Khan 2/22) lost to Uttar Pradesh 188/5; 42.5 overs (Akshdeep Nath 71, Karan Sharma 38, Upendra Yadav five wickets for 31 runs).