Abhijeet Tomar ton in vain as Haryana win maiden Vijay Hazare title

Out on the big stage with a challenge to conquer the odds, Abhijeet Tomar responded with maturity and courage with a gritty 129-ball 106, but Rajasthan fell short by 30 runs as Haryana made history by winning their maiden Vijay Hazare Trophy title in Rajkot on Saturday. Chasing 288, Rajasthan had a nightmarish start. In the blink of an eye they were 12/3 in 5.1 overs which included the wickets of their batting mainstays Deepak Hooda (0 off 1 ball) and Mahipal Lomror (2 off 8 balls).

Pacer Sumit Kumar was breathing fire as he cleaned up the top three to give Haryana an ideal start. It was swing bowling at its best that left Rajasthan’s top-order stunned. Tomar clubbed with Kunal Singh Rathore (79 off 65 balls) to bring the team back into the game and resurrect the innings with a partnership of 121, but Harshal Patel intervened and gobbled the duo’s wicket to put a lid on Rajasthan’s aspirations of winning the title.

Playing under new skipper Ashok Menaria, this is Haryana’s third title in the domestic circuit after winning Ranji Trophy and Irani Trophy back in 1990-91 and 1991-92 respectively. With this win, they have stayed unbeaten in the tournament.

Interestingly, Menaria served Rajasthan for 15 years before going to Haryana as a professional in July. Disenchanted with the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA), the 33-year-old former Rajasthan skipper left his home state in search of greener pastures. Certainly, the move has worked for Menaria and his new team Haryana has gained from it.

Earlier, having elected to bat first, Haryana lost two early wickets but Ankit Kumar (88 off 91 balls) and Ashok Menaria (70 off 96 balls) brought them back on track. It was during this phase when they looked steady in rebuilding the innings that Aniket Choudhary came in to bowl his second spell, and eliminated the growing threat of Ankit-Menaria pair.

The Haryana duo shared a partnership of 124 runs before perishing in two consecutive Aniket overs. Attempting a shot at square leg, Ankit got clean bowled in the 35th over while Menaria’s attempt to go big failed as he holed out at square leg in the 37th over. Later, the left-arm seamer stopped a charging Rahul Tewatia (24 off 18 balls) in his stride to claim fourth four-wicket haul in the tournament. The veteran Rajasthan bowler finished with the figures of 10-1-49-4.

What followed was Sumit’s whirlwind knock to propel Haryana to 287/8 in 50 overs.

When Ankit along with Menaria were navigating through, they were considerably slow for most part of their stay at the crease. It was the lower-order that came and changed the gears- slamming 53 in the last 30 balls.

This is Rajasthan’s first loss in the tournament, but the players can hold their heads high as captain Hooda mentioned in the post-match presentation that ‘the team played good cricket throughout the tournament and he is proud of them’.

Brief score: Haryana 287/8 in 50 overs (Ankit Kumar 88, Ashok Menaria 70 Sumit Kumar 28 not out; Aniket Choudhary 4-49, Arafat Khan 2-59) beat Rajasthan 257 all out in 48 overs (Abhijeet Tomar 106, Kunal Singh Rathore 79; Sumit Kumar 3-34, Harshal Patel 3-47) by 30 runs.


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