Nitish Rana struck an excellent unbeaten 94 as Delhi thrashed Tripura in a high scoring Group B match of the Vijay Hazare Trophy at the HPCA Stadium here on Wednesday.
Delhi had a huge target in hand after Tripura, inserted in, amassed an impressive 298 for seven. However, it rode on half-centuries by the top four batsmen to reach the target with more than 10 overs to spare.
Unmukt Chand, who had made a cautious fifty in the Mushtaq Ali final, was his normal self again following his century against Uttar Pradesh. He timed the ball sweetly and found the gaps effortlessly in a 65-ball 55, dotted with nine fours and a six over mid-wicket to notch up his half-century.
Unmukt and young Hiten Dalal had put on 93 runs for the opening stand - Dalal overcoming an initial tentativeness to reach his career-best score (76 off 81, 8x4, 2x6).
Rana, who was struggling to get runs, struck form in time. Following a watchful phase in the middle, the talented left-hander displayed his entertaining range of strokes in a 60-ball 94, comprising 10 hits to the fence and five over it.
Rana, who put together 87 runs with Dalal and 98 with Rishabh Pant (56 off 28, 9x4, 2x6), announced his preparedness for the Indian Premier League (IPL) when he batted right-handed to collect the winning runs, a boundary down the leg off Udiyan Bose.
“It is an important knock for me ahead of the knock-out stage of this event and the IPL. I have tried switching hands during practice sessions, but not in a match before today,” said Rana.
Earlier, Tripura rode on Bishal Ghosh's 84, Yashpal Singh's 61 and Gurinder Singh's 54 to finish on the threshold of the 300 mark.
At Amtar, Kerala, which scored 235 for six, managed to tie the match against Bengal. K.B. Arun Karthick's throw from long-on to wicketkeeper Sanju Samson ran out Kanishk Seth, who was trying to complete the second run, off the last ball bowled by Abhishek Mohan.
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