Rajasthan continued their winning streak with their third victory in the Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy after they trounced Himachal by seven wickets in an Elite Group C game here on Saturday. Rajasthan had earlier defeated Jharkhand and Jammu & Kashmir.
First Rajasthan restricted the opposition to 136/6 and then chased the target in just 14.4 overs, courtesy blistering knocks by in-form Deepak Hooda (70 not out off 36 balls) and Mahipal Lomror (55 off 39 balls). At the Reliance stadium, Himachal lost both the openers Shubham Arora (11) and Abhimanyu Rana (0) early and were struggling at 11/2.
Pacer Tanveer-ul-Haq struck for the second time as he removed Nikhil Gangta for 6, after he was caught by Deepak Hooda. Himachal were in a spot of bother at 20/3. Then, Prashant Chopra (53) and skipper Rishi Dhawan (26) tried to rally the innings with a 47-run stand for the fourth wicket.
But when it looked like the two would score big, young leggie Ravi Bishnoi castled Dhawan to bring Rajasthan back into contention Chopra then held the innings from one end, but Rajasthan kept making inroads at regular intervals to restrict Himachal to a sub-par total. Chasing 137, Rajasthan lost openers Aditya Garhwal (4) and Ankit Lamba (2) early and were reeling at 18/2.
But skipper Lomror and Hooda not only rallied the innings but took the side home. While Hooda hammered five fours and as many sixes, Lomror’s knock comprised six fours and two maximums.
The duo added a match winning 111-run stand for the third wicket, which took the game away from Himachal.
Brief scores:
Himachal 136/6 (Prashant Chopra 53, Rishi Dhawan 26; Tanveer Ul Haq 2/13, Ravi Bishnoi 1/27) lost to Rajasthan 141/3 (Deepak Hooda 70 not out, Mahipal Lomror 55; Rishi Dhawan 2/21) by seven wickets.
Haryana 108 all out (Rohit Pramod Sharma 29, Himanshu Rana 28; Umran Malik 4/22, Parvez Rasool 3/18) lost to Jammu and Kashmir 109/3 (Parvez Rasool 34 not out, Shubham Pundir 28 not out; Jayant Yadav 2/23) by seven wickets.
Andhra 165/4 (KS Bharat 48, Ashwin Hebber 45; Shahbaaz Nadeem 1/22) won against Jharkhand 157/9 (Ishank Jaggi 62, Utkarsh Singh 43; C Stephen 3/23; M Harishankar Reddy 3/24) by 8 runs.