Dinesh Karthik's hundred in vain as Himachal Pradesh wins Vijay Hazare Trophy 2021
When Tamil Nadu scored 314 runs on Dinesh Karthik's stormy century, everyone assumed that the Vijay Hazare Trophy was going to Chennai once again, at the headquarters of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association.
But Himachal Pradesh turned everything upside down. Himachal Pradesh won their first ever domestic cricket trophy by defeating Tamil Nadu in the VJD method, with a brilliant fight from team's captain Rishi Dhawan lower down the order. Dhawan led Himachal Pradesh won the match by 11 runs after they scored 299 runs in 47.3 overs, whereas they needed to score 288 runs to win via the VJD method.
Himachal Pradesh wins their first ever Domestic Trophy
Himachal Pradesh captain Rishi Dhawan won the toss and elected to field first at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Sunday. Tamil Nadu was the favorite in this match. Dinesh Karthik, Vijay Shankar, Washington Sundar, Shah Rukh Khan, Sandeep Warrior, are all the star scattering in the team. But Himachal Pradesh changed all the numbers against that team.
Tamil Nadu did not start well. Opening batsman Baba Aparajit (2) went back in the first over of the match only. Tamil Nadu were at 40/4 in 14.3 overs at one stage of the match.
When it seemed like that Tamil Nadu might not be able to add more runs to it, then former team captain Dinesh Karthik showcased his brilliance.
The former Kolkata Knight Riders captain played a wonderful innings of 116 runs off 103 balls. Karthik had 6 fours and 6 sixes in his innings. Baba Indrajith and Shah Rukh Khan gave him a worthy helphand.
Indrajith made 60 off 61 balls. Shah Rukh was in a more aggressive mood. He scored 42 runs off just 21 balls with 200 strike rate. In the end, Tamil Nadu captain Vijay Shankar scored 22 off 18 balls. Tamil Nadu were all out for 314 in 49.4 overs. Among the Himachal bowlers, Pankaj Jaiswal took 4 wickets while captain Dhawan took three wickets.
Himachal got off to a good start while chasing the run. Two openers Shubham Arora and Prashant Chopra added 60 runs in 7.5 overs. Himachal lost 3 wickets quickly after that and were down to 3 wickets for 96 runs.
Shubham and Amit Kumar turned the match around from there. Shubham played a great innings of 136 runs off 131 balls. Amit was dismissed for 74 runs off 79 balls.
Towards the end, when the run rate gap was gradually putting Himachal camp under pressure, captain Rishi Dhawan played a fantastic and quickfire innings of 42 off 23 balls. Himachal scored 299/4 in 48.3 overs. Himachal won the match by 11 runs in VJD method. Shubham Arora was the best of the match and was named Man of the Match.