Nadeem stars in Jharkhand's title win

A collective batting effort and a four-wicket haul from Shahbaz Nadeem sealed a title win for Jharkhand in their Vijay Hazare Trophy final against Gujarat at the Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore. After opting to bat, Jharkhand were boosted by several useful contributions from their batsmen while Gujarat, in their reply, failed to measure up against a dominating bowling performance to sink to a 159-run defeat.

Gujarat had been on even terms for a good part of the first half of the Jharkhand innings, as they dismissed openers Subroto Ghosh and Akash Verma, as well as Saurabh Tiwary, who's been prolific on the domestic circuit and in the IPL, relatively cheaply. Jharkhand were 80 for 3 at one stage but two crucial stands in the middle order set up a challenging total of 255. Ishank Jaggi and Kumar Deobrat struck half-centuries and added 9 for the fourth wicket, in reasonably quick time, but Gujarat fought back by dismissing both in quick succession. But the lower middle-order swung the game again in Jharkhand's favour, as wicketkeeper Shiv Gautam and Varun Aaron made quickfire cameos, putting together 51 in just 23 balls to ensure their team had the momentum going into the chase.

Jharkhand needn't have been wary of a strong reply, as Gujarat's innings began poorly. Captain Parthiv Patel fell in the first over, followed by opening partner Avi Barot in the next. Manprit Juneja and Niraj Patel tried to revive the innings with a steady 68-run stand, but the innings fell apart not long after. Niraj was left to see the capitulation at the other end as each of the remaining Gujarat batsmen failed to offer any resistance. Nadeem, with his left-arm spin, grabbed four scalps and caused a run-out in a collapse where Gujarat lost eight wickets for 22. Only two batsmen in the innings reached double-figures, as the Gujarat reply lasted just 24 overs.