Prabhsimran, Rathod fire Punjab and Vidarbha into Vijay Hazare Trophy semis

Half-centuries from Prabhsimran Singh and Anmolpreet Singh laid the platform for Punjab's crushing 183-run win over Madhya Pradesh in the third quarter-final of the 2025-26 Vijay Hazare Trophy. This was Punjab's biggest margin of victory in terms of runs in the competition.

Punjab's 345 for 6 was at no point challenged by MP, who surrendered meekly. They were reduced to 66 for 5 and Rajat Patidar was left with too much to do single-handedly. He briefly held fort, top scoring with 38, but his dismissal opened the floodgates once again; MP were bowled out for 162 in 31.2 overs.

As impressive as all the bowlers were, Gurnoor Brar bowled a special spell. He clocked 140-kph plus with 25 off his first 30 deliveries in his first spell. He troubled batters with not just pace but also hard lengths, and was rewarded with two wickets.

Punjab will however be concerned over his fitness. He limped off the field after bowling just 6.2 overs and didn't return for the finishing stages of the match. Sanvir Singh, the seam bowling allrounder, picked up three wickets.

Sanvir's wickets included that of Shubham Sharma and Venkatesh Iyer in the same over. Shubham was out nicking an away-swinger to slip, while Venkatesh was out for a two-ball duck after being tapped plumb in front by a late inswinger.

Earlier in the game, Prabhsimran and Harnoor Singh (51) added 116 for the first wicket to lay the groundwork. From there on, while Anmolpreet rallied on, Nehal Wadhera (56 off 38) and Ramandeep Singh (24* off 15) lent the finishing touches.

Punjab will take on Saurashtra in the semi-final on January 16.

After blowing hot in the previous season, Yash Rathod had blown cold in this season. However in a high-stakes quarter-final, he struck form, top-scoring with 86 off 73 balls, to power Vidarbha home against Delhi.

Vidarbha will now take on defending champions Karnataka in Thursday's first semi-final.

Put in to bat, Vidarbha built slowly after losing the in-form Aman Mokhade - who has so far scored four hundreds in the competition - for 6. Atharva Taide and Dhruv Shorey forged a 90-run stand that helped consolidate the innings in the face of some excellent bowling from Ishant Sharma, the Delhi captain, and Navdeep Saini.

When Ishant dismissed Taide for 62 to break this partnership, he picked up his 200th List A wicket. But there wasn't much respite for Delhi as Rathod carried on that good work. It wasn't by any means a flamboyant knock, but one that served Vidarbha well as it helped overcome the losses of two set batters, Shorey and R Samarth.

Rathod wasn't allowed to break free until the last four overs as Vidarbha kept losing wickets. Rathod was eventually dismissed in the penultimate over of the innings by fast bowler Prince Yadav.

Delhi kickstarted their chase briskly through Priyansh Arya, who raced away to 28 off 19 before Nachiket Bhute had him nicking off to break a 58-run opening stand. Nitish Rana fell next ball when he ramped a short ball straight to deep third to give Bhute his second wicket.

Harsh Dubey then got into the act, picking up Vaibhav Kandpal and the highly-rated Tejasvi Dahiya in quick succession. Anuj Rawat then waged a lone battle with a half-century, but Delhi kept losing wickets at regular intervals and were eventually bowled out for 224 in 45.1 overs.