Awana bowls Delhi to victory
A round up of the Vijay Hazare Trophy matches for February 19, 2013
ESPNcricinfo staff
19-Feb-2013
North Zone
Punjab completed a 184-run chase against Services to earn four much-needed points, as they close the gap on group leaders Delhi. Services were put into bat, but a spirited spell from Sandeep Sharma left them reeling at 11 for 4. Nakul Verma and Rajat Paliwal then put together a 59-run stand for the fifth wicket.
Paliwal finished as the top-scorer with 96 off 118 balls; once he fell the tail couldn't contribute, and they were bundled out for 183. Sharma took career-best List A figures of 3 for 28. Contributions from Chandan Madan (38), Gurkeerat Singh (49) and Mayank Sidhana, who finished 43 not out, helped Punjab finish off the chase in the 46th over.
Delhi beat Haryana by 66 runs and retained their place at the top of the group table. Delhi were asked to bat and opener Dhruv Shorey continued his good form with another half-century (57) in consecutive innings. Jagrit Anand also scored 57, and helped guide Delhi to 235 for 6, with Sumit Narwal striking a quick fire 46 off 24 towards the end.
Haryana's chase didn't start ideally, as they lost two quick wickets with the score at 2 for 22. Amit Mishra, India's former legspinner, promoted himself to open, validating the decision with 55 before succumbing to Pradeep Sangwan. Parvinder Awana's 4 for 33, along with Sangwan's 3 for 30, helped keep Haryana out of contention as they were dismissed for 169.
Himachal Pradesh beat Jammu & Kashmir by 73 runs, thanks to opener Aakhash Chopra's 72. J&K chose to field and HP's openers put on 59 for the first wicket. HP were able to string regular partnerships together as they scored 248 for 9 at the completion of their fifty overs. Zahoor Sofi took a career-best 4 for 62, with Ram Dayal's 3 for 41 helping keep HP in check towards the tail-end of their innings.
J&K started poorly with Shubham Khajuria falling early on. Ahmed Bandy and Ian Dev Singh put together 52 runs for the second wicket to help stabilize the chase. Following that J&K lost a slew of wickets to leave them reeling at 7 for 74. Dayal and Waseem Raza put together a 60-run stand, but were always facing an uphill battle and J&K were dismissed for 175. Rahul Singh bowled a career-best 4 for 37 to help lead his team to victory.