New Delhi:
Mumbai, the defending champions of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, were dumped out of the tournament in bizarre circumstances. In the quarterfinal of the tournament against Chhattisgarh at the Alur Cricket Ground in Bangalore, Mumbai chose to bowl and they managed to restrict Chhatisgrah to 190/6 in 45.4 overs before the rain intervened. Mumbai were chasing a revised target of 192 in 40 overs according to the VJD method and Yashasvi Jaiswal, who became the youngest to score a double ton in List A cricket, blasted 60 off 38 balls. The knock included five fours and five sixes and he was given good support by Aditya Tare who hit 31. Mumbai were 95/0 in 11.3 overs before rain forced a no-result.
Since 20 overs were not up, the match was declared a no-result but the more bizarre ruling was that Mumbai were eliminated due to the no-result. The reason: Chhatisgarh had more wins in the league stages as compared to Mumbai. Chhatisgarh had five wins in eight games while Mumbai had won four and in the previous encounter between the two sides, Chhatisgarh had won by five wickets.
The result has been deemed unfair and one unnamed official said they would lodge a complaint with the BCCI. "Yes, definitely we will make a demand. This was unfair. How should the performance in the league stage matter in the knock-out stages. Every day is a new day. Else, a good team goes out in this fashion. Else this thing would continue," the member said.
Chhatisgarh were rescued by a captain's knock of 83 by Harpreet Singh and his partnership of 135 with Amandeep Khare who smashed 59. Dhawal Kulkarni took 2/9 in eight overs and there was good support from Shardul Thakur, Shivam Dube and Dhrumil Matkar. Jaiswal and Tare had put Mumbai on course but they were undone by the elements.
Also Read | From Selling Pani Puris To Youngest List A Double Centurion - The Story Of Yashasvi Jaiswal
Chhatisgarh will now face table-toppers Karnataka while Tamil Nadu also made it to the semi-final after their game against Punjab ended in a no-result. Tamil Nadu will take on Gujarat and the final will be played on October 25 at the M Chinnaswamy stadium.
