Jaipur: Captain Rishi Dhawan’s outstanding performance with bat and bowl has pulled off an astonishing 77-run win against Services in the semi-final of Vijay Hazare Trophy 2021.
The Himachal Pradesh captain Rishi Dhawan has played a starring role in taking the team to their first-ever Vijay Hazare final. Rishi made 84 in 77 balls and later he took four wickets in his 8.1 overs.
Earlier, Services won the toss and decided to ball first. Its decision to ball first was proved right when Himachal lost its first wicket on 19 when opener Shivam Arora was found on the line of the wicket by Raj Bahadur. Prashant Chopra and Digvijay Rangi started cautiously and forged 74 runs partnership. Rangi was bowled by Rahul Singh on an individual score of 37 thereafter inform batsman Nikhil Gangta was run out on 16 runs (team score was 104-3) and 10 balls later Diwesh Pathania bowled Amit Kumar. Amit failed to open score.
Thereafter it’s totally a Captain Rishi Dhawan’s day. Came in with the bat when the team was in trouble at 106/4 in 25 overs, Dhawan struck a fluent 84 off 77 balls, lifting the team to 281.
Prashant Chopra scored 78 and Akash Vasisht made a quickfire of 45.
Chasing 282, the Services team bowled out for 204 in 46.1 overs. Services didn’t find any momentum at any stage of the run chase. Got off to a terribly slow start, lost a couple of wickets early which led to a long period of consolidation between captain Rajat Paliwal and Ravi Chauhan. Rajat made 55 and Amit lost his wicket after scoring 45.
Rishi Dhawan picked 4 wickets, Sidharth, Akash Vasisht 2 each, while Pankaj Jaswal took one wicket.
In the Vijay Hazare Trophy, 2021 final Himachal Pradesh will face Tamil Nadu on 26th December.
