Jharkhand hammer Vidarbha to enter Vijay Hazare semis

Jharkhand sailed into the semi-finals of the Vijay Hazare domestic 50-overs cricket tournament with a six-wicket win over Vidarbha in their quarter-final here on Wednesday.

Vidarbha could only score 159/9 in 50 overs and Jharkhand lost only four wickets to overhaul the target with 4.5 overs to spare.

Middle-order batsman Ravi Jangid rescued Vidarbha with a 62 as the western side could only score 159/9. Ganesh Satish was Vidarbha's second-highest scorer with a 35.

Jangid shared a 61-run eighth-wicket stand with Rajneesh Gurbani (22) to give Vidarbha bowlers at least something to bowl for.

For Jharkhand, Monu Kumar took two wickets, while Varun Aaron, Rahul Shukla, Kaushal Singh, Shahbaz Nadeem bagged a wicket each.

Chasing the small target, Jharkhand got off to a superb start through Ishan Kishan (35) and Pratyush Singh (33), who put together 68 runs for the opening wicket. Both the openers were dismissed by Ravikumar Thakur.

Kumar Deobrat (17) and Saurabh Tiwary (17) were the other two Jharkhand wickets to fall.

Then, Ishank Jaggi (41 not out) and iconic captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (18 not out) steered Jharkhand to victory without any trouble.

Akshay Wakhare and Jangid also earned a wicket apiece for Vidarbha.

--IANS

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