In a game of two fantastic centuries, Shubham Arora’s unbeaten ton eclipsed Dinesh Karthik’s as Himachal Pradesh clinched the title against Tamil Nadu in the Vijay Hazare Trophy domestic One-Day championship in Jaipur on Sunday.
Chasing a stiff 315, Himachal Pradesh, who were playing their first Vijay Hazare final, responded in style with the 24-year-old wicketkeeper-batter making a fine 136* with 13 fours and one six. With Himachal 299/4 in 47.3 overs, and needing 16 off 15 balls, bad light suspended play at 5pm, before Himachal were declared winners under the VJD Method.
While Tamil Nadu had won the trophy five times in the past, Himachal became the latest team to clinch the trophy named after the Indian legend.
Opting to bowl first in gloomy conditions, HP struck early to send back TN’s openers. The domestic stalwarts then shuffled up their batting order to negate the HP seamers, holding back their middle order big guns.
From 34/3 and then 40/4, Baba Indrajith and Dinesh Karthik put together a brilliant 202-run stand. Shahrukh Khan, in red hot form, smashed a 21-ball 42 lower down the order and TN posted 314.
Wicketkeeper-bat Arora was then the star for HP. The left-handed opening batter remained unbeaten despite some late reprieves from an uncharacteristically sloppy TN. Amit Kumar chipped in with 74, as HP recovered from losing the in-form Prashant Chopra. Dhawan then came in to play a brilliant cameo, and HP finished on 299, when bad light led to early end of play. The celebrations were paused briefly while the umpires discussed the end result, but once the players shook hands and the officials gave the green signal, the HP players stormed to the middle and later broke out dancing and singing.
In the run-chase in final, 24-year-old Arora (who had put down a simple chance earlier in the innings for DK) came out all guns blazing with his maiden List A century.
Tamil Nadu have been the best domestic side in the country in white-ball cricket since the 2019-20 season. After losing the finals of the one-day and T20 competitions in 2019, the team has won back-to-back titles in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20s (2020-21 and 2021-22), but underdogs Himachal outplayed the favourites on this occasion.
On a day when veteran wicketkeeper-batter and former captain Dinesh Karthik smashed an entertaining 103-ball 116, the young Himachal counterpart outshone the seasoned pro with his well-calculated, unbeaten century under pressure.
After opting to field on a flat Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Rishi Dhawan took another fine call in sending Amit Kumar ahead of him, as the skipper chose to play the role of a finisher. The move paid dividends as the the left-right combination of Arora and Amit (74 from 79 balls; 6x4) added 148 for the fourth wicket in a match-winning partnership.
After Baba Aparajith gave TN the much-needed breakthrough by dismissing Amit, Himachal needed 71 from 54 deliveries, but Rishi played his role to perfection, hammering the rival bowling attack to make it look easy in the end.
Eyeing a record sixth title in the tournament and a limited-overs double this season, Tamil Nadu, who recently won the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20, were lacklustre on the field. Skipper Vijay Shankar made a blunder as he fumbled when he was presented a crucial run-out opportunity when Arora was on 113.
Arora was also grassed by Jagadeeshan when he was on 135, with Himachal needing 18 in as many balls.
“The team has backed me throughout the tournament. I just wanted to play my natural game and built on my innings after I got set,” said player of the match Arora.
An elated Dhawan said: “Finally we have won a title, it’s the result of our hard work over the years. We knew the conditions well here and so we just to stay on there.”
Eyeing a maiden Vijay Hazare Trophy title, Himachal started strongly with a 60-run opening stand between Arora and Prashant Chopra (21 off 26 balls). But Tamil Nadu effected a double blow, dismissing Chopra, Digvijay Rangi (0) in a space of five balls to leave them at 61/2 in 9.3 overs.
HP were then reduced to 96/3 in 16.1 overs with Murugan Ashwin dismissing Nikhil Gangta off his very first delivery. But the left-handed Arora remained calm, while Amit Kumar, coming ahead of skipper Rishi, played a perfect second fiddle.
The left-right combination kept rotating the strike and snatched quick singles. Arora and Kumar slowly pulled the game out of Tamil Nadu’s hands as they struggled to break the partnership.
Arora was very strong square of the wicket and fine leg. Even fortune favoured Arora as he raced to 99 after getting a big outside edge off Sadeep Warrier, but an outstretched Karthik could hardly reach the ball.
Earlier, Karthik’s century and Shahrukh Khan’s fantastic finishing – 42 off 21 balls with three fours and three sixes – propelled Tamil Nadu after they were 40 for four at one stage. Karthik struck eight fours and seven sixes. Baba Indrajith smashed 80 in 71 balls.
Brief scores of the final:
Tamil Nadu: 314 all out in 49.4 overs (Dinesh Karthik 116, Baba Indrajith 80, Shahrukh Khan 42; Pankaj Jaswal 4/59, Rishi Dhawan 3/62) lost to Himachal Pradesh 299/4; 47.3 overs (Shubham Arora 136 not out, Amit Kumar 74, Rishi Dhawan 42 not out) by 11 runs (VJD Method after bad light suspended play).
(With PTI inputs)
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