The Himachal bowlers, led by Vinay Galetiya (3/19), ripped away from the UP batting order, resulting in a total of 207/9 for the visitors. Chopra’s magnificent innings and Nikhil Gangta’s quick-fire 58 gave Himachal Pradesh a 27-ball lead.
Prashant Chopra’s 99 helped Himachal Pradesh to a five-wicket victory over Uttar Pradesh in the Vijay Hazare Trophy quarter-finals on Tuesday. Himachal Pradesh’s bowlers, led by paceman Vinay Galetiya (3/19), took apart the UP batting order, despite a 76 from Rinku Singh.
Nikhil Gangta’s quick-fire 58 and Varun Chopra’s superb innings put Himachal Pradesh in command with 27 balls to spare.
Galetiya (3/19) wreaked havoc on UP’s top order when they were put in to bat at the Sawai Mansingh stadium.
Abhishek Goswami, the opener, was caught by Siddharth Sharma in the eighth over.
Hamirpur-born The loss of Aryan Juyal (9) and skipper Karan Sharma (0) by Galetiya in the ninth over severely weakened UP’s position. In the wake of Galetiya’s dismissal of Sameer Rizvi, it rose to 39/4. (5).
A 64-run fifth-wicket partnership between Akshdeep Nath (32) and Rinku, who came in at number six, revived the innings.
Siddharth Sharma (2/27) snatched a wicket from Nath as UP lost half their team with 103 runs on the board.
To give their bowlers something to defend, Rinku and Bhuvneshwar (46 off 52 balls) put on a 75-run stand in their innings of 102 balls.
Himachal Pradesh openers Shubham Arora (19) and Gurpreet Chopra (10) put on 54 runs for the first wicket in 17.2 overs in the chase for 208.
The two openers pounded the odd boundaries with no pressure from the scoreboard.
Shivam Mavi, a teenage pacer, ended the partnership by dismissing Arora (3/34).
After Gangta and Chopra put on 122 runs for the second wicket, the game was over for the United States.
In contrast to Chopra, Gangta hit five fours and three sixes as Himachal Pradesh glided towards their goal…
Ankit Rajpoot (2/52) struck twice in the 38th over to bring his team back into contention, dismissing Gangta and captain Rishi Dhawan (0).
Mavi took Chopra out of the game after the opener, 29, missed out on a century by a run. Despite Mavi’s dismissal of Sumeet Verma (three), Amit Kumar (14 not out) led the team home.
This match was won by Himachal Pradesh by five wickets with a score of 207/9 (Rinku Singh 76, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 46) against Uttar Pradesh with a score of 208/5 (Prashant Chopra 99, Nikhil Gangta 58).
