Vijay Hazare Trophy: Delhi, UP, Baroda win in Group B

Delhi beat Punjab in a closely-fought match with Lalit Yadav leading the fightback, while Baroda and UP were the other teams to win in Group B.

Swapnil Singh (in picture) scored 66 to help Baroda beat Himachal Pradesh by two wickets.

Lalit Yadav led the lower middle-order fightback with an unbeaten half-century before spinners joined the party as Delhi managed to upstage Punjab by five runs in a Group B match of the Vijay Hazare trophy here on Monday.

Coming into bat at 115 for five, Yadav emerged as the top-scorer for Delhi with an unbeaten 53-ball 54 as he steered the team to a respectable 220 for 8 in its stipulated 50 overs.

Skipper Dhruv Shorey (46), Nitish Rana (39) and Himmat Singh (33) also contributed with the bat for Delhi.

Chasing the total, Anmolpreet Singh (73) kept Punjab in the hunt but it failed to weave partnerships and eventually managed 215 for nine.

Navdeep Saini rocked the top order, removing both the openers Abhishek Sharma (36) and Sanvir Singh (1) before the spin troika of Pawan Negi (2/40), Nitish Rana (2/34) and Lalit Yadav (2/22) produced wickets at regular intervals to derail Punjab’s chase.

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Manan Sharma (1/38) also scalped one wicket.

Earlier, Siddarth Kaul (5/48) produced a superb five-wicket haul as he removed both the openers - Shikhar Dhawan (10) and K. Bidhuri (8) and then returned to dismiss three more lower-order batsmen.

-UP registers comfortable win-

In another match, Uttar Pradesh notched up a 109-run win over Vidarbha, riding on a superb ton by Priyam Garg (120) and a six-wicket haul by Saurabh Kumar (6/25).

Electing to bat, Uttar Pradesh posted 211 all out, built around a 158-ball century by Garg which was studded with nine boundaries and four sixes.

Shivam Mavi (20) was the only other batsman to get into double figures as the rest failed to provide any resistance.

Chasing the target, Vidarbha was completely bamboozled by left-arm spinner Saurabh with just three of the batsmen reaching double figures.

-Swapnil Singh the match-winner for Baroda-

Meanwhile, Baroda eked out a two-wicket win over Himachal Pradesh in a low-scoring match.

Put into bat, HP was bundled out for a paltry 161 in 44 overs with Baroda bowlers Bhargav Bhatt (3/24) and Ninad Rathva (3/33) snapping three wickets each.

Baroda then returned to overhaul the target, scoring 165 for 8 in 34.5 overs, built around an unbeaten 85-ball 66 by Swapnil Singh.