Vijay Hazare Trophy: Maharashtra beat Mumbai to reach semi-final

NEW DELHI: Maharashtra' all-rounder Shrikant Mundhe only got a four-over spell against Mumbai in the quarter-finals of the Vijay Hazare Trophy here at the Palam cricket ground on Wednesday. But when the team think-tank backed him to open the innings in order to extend the top-order batting, he reposed their faith by producing a match-winning knock.Maharashtra did lose Ruturaj Dasharath early on while chasing Mumbai's not-so-high 223 winning target, but Mundhe took charge of the proceedings and played some exquisite shots to make a resounding 70. His knock not only laid the foundation for his team but also enabled Maharashtra trump their arch-rivals by seven wickets. Two square-cuts that flew from Munde's bat off Dhawal Kulkarni gave enough indication that he was in the mood to play a special knock for his team.It also began quite well for Maharashtra after Pradeep Dadhe (3/57) picked two early Mumbai wickets in the form of Prithvi Shaw and in-form Siddhesh Lad and reduced them to 25 for two. Both Mumbai captain Aditya Tare and Shreyas Iyer did try to resurrect the innings, but Mumbai kept losing wickets at regular intervals and eventually few short by at least 40 to 50 runs. It was Suryakumar Yadav's 69 that saved the blushes for Mumbai. He also shared quite a few partnerships with the lower middle-order as well before Maharashtra bowlers made good inroads to restrict Mumbai to 222 for nine in their stipulated 50 overs.The only hiccup for Maharashtra - after they lost two quick wickets on a score of 135 when Mundhe got run out after a horrible mix up with captain Rahul Tripathi. The next one came in the following over after Tripathi got out on 49 and with two new batsmen at the crease, it was anyone's game. But Ankit Bawane and Naushad Shaikh ensured that their team rounded up the match without much of a problem. Earlier, Mumbai won the toss and elected to bat on a fresh Palam wicket, which had a bit of carry for the fast bowlers. Dadhe bowled a few good in-swingers in his first spell to bother Shaw, who started off well with two superb hits to the fence. But the young cricketer was found wanting just outside the off-stump and that was the cause of his dismissal too. A lot was expected of Iyer, who had a very impressive start to his innings and was pacing his innings like a senior pro. Just when Iyer was about to take the match away from Maharashtra, he played an ordinary shot to be caught behind the stump. A late charge from Kulkarni (23) was the need of the hour, but it was not enough to put pressure on the opposition.