Tamil Nadu 230 (Indrajit 64, Kamboj 4-30) lost to Haryana 293 for 7 (Himanshu 116*, Yuvraj 65, Sumit 48, Natarajan 3-79) by 63 runs.
In the first semi-final in Rajkot, Haryana defeated five-time champions and a star-studded Tamil Nadu to go to their first Vijay Hazare Trophy final. Himanshu Rana, who batted third, scored an undefeated century to set up Haryana’s historic victory. Sumit Kumar’s brilliant finish took the score to 293 for 7, and the bowling attack combined to dismiss Tamil Nadu for 230 without their main spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, who departed for South Africa to play for his country.
Haryana chose to bat first and got off to a poor start, but Yuvraj Singh and Himanshu quickly picked up the pace, putting on a second-wicket partnership of 132. Despite Yuvraj’s 65 off 79, Haryana’s middle order failed to capitalize, as the team lost ground from 170 for 2 to 206 for 6, with most of the batters unable to make huge shots. While this was going on, Himanshu kept pulling and driving to stabilize the innings, and when the No. 8 Sumit joined him, Haryana was once more lifted. Beginning with a first-ball six, he proceeded to smash three fours and two more sixes in a game-changing partnership of 75 off 42, ensuring that Haryana amassed 69 runs in the final five overs, including 19 from Varun Chakravarthy and 43 from T Natarajan’s three overs.
Himanshu reached his second century of the competition in just 110 balls, scoring over half of his total through boundaries (11 fours and 2 sixes).
Before the chase even began, Tamil Nadu’s regular No. 3 Baba Indrajit suffered a facial injury during an innings break when sliding in the restroom, forcing him to drop to No. 5. Within the first three overs, Haryana removed Baba Aparajith (caught down the leg side) and Hari Nishaanth, consolidating their position even further in the game. After over 50 minutes of digging in, Vijay Shankar was run out trying an extremely dangerous single, and N Jagadeesan, who was well-set, quickly flung a catch to short fine leg off a sweep. Even with Indrajith, captain Dinesh Karthik, and Shahrukh Khan remaining, Tamil Nadu was 76 for 4 in the twenty-first over and none of them could get them near the mark.
Karthik blasted three sixes over the midwicket boundary as the asking rate already exceeded 7.50 an over, and Indrajith amassed a quick half-century with strokes all over the field. But in the 31st over, Karthik misplayed a pull and was caught at midwicket; three overs later, Shahrukh holed out, thereby ending Tamil Nadu’s chances of survival. Indrajith was immediately caught at short fine leg by Anshul Kamboj, who went on to strike twice more in the next overs to finish with 4 for 30.
Recalling that it was a “very chasable total,” Karthik bemoaned the defeat and gave respect to his quick bowlers. However, he felt that his batting did not truly connect when huge partnerships were needed, an area in which he wanted his squad to develop in order to post large totals.
Ashok Menaria, the captain of Haryana, praised his squad for their efforts in Chahal’s absence, particularly after he acknowledged that, at halftime, he didn’t think 293 would be sufficient.
