Vijay Hazare Trophy: Jharkhand falls short by seven runs

The Ishan Kishan-led side almost pulled off a magical win against the Ranji Trophy champions.

Jharkhand skipper Ishan Kishan set the stage with a well-fought 40 off 43 balls but the team choked in the final overs.

The Group D encounter of the Vijay Hazare Trophy fixture between Vidarbha and Jharkhand saw a thrilling finish as the Ranji Trophy champions beat youngster Ishan Kishan’s side by seven runs at the AOC Centre Thapar Stadium in Secunderabad on Monday.

Opting to bat first, Vidarbha batsmen Jitesh Sharma (79) and Sanjay Ramaswamy (77) stitched a 116-run stand for the second wicket, which later helped the team reach 300. Apoorv Wankhade’s cameo — 51 off 34 balls — made matters worse.

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Though the Jharkhand bowlers could claim 10 wickets — with seamer Rahul Shukla returning with figures of 4/52 — they couldn’t keep Vidarbha away from the 300-run mark. Varun Aaron, the out of favour India bowler, remained wicketless.

Jharkhand skipper Ishan Kishan stood his ground while wickets kept falling on the opposite side. He set the stage for a well-fought 40 off 43 balls (five fours and two sixes). Saurabh Tiwary (65), Kumar Deobrat (60) and Vikash Singh (59*) almost sealed the deal but they ran out of steam in the final over.

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Umesh Yadav, Rajneesh Gurbani and Yash Thakur claimed two wickets each for Vidarbha.

Brief scores: Vidarbha 300/10 (J Sharma 79; R Shukla 4/52) beat Jharkhand 293/7 (S Tiwary 65; Y Thakur 2/45) by seven runs