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Vijay Hazare Trophy
Out-of-favour India pacer Mohammed Shami, who has been in impressive form on the domestic circuit with 36 wickets across formats, has been named in Bengal's squad for the upcoming Vijay Hazare Trophy one-day competition. Shami, who has not played for India for a while and was overlooked for the recent series against South Africa, has enjoyed a strong return to competitive cricket for Bengal following a lengthy injury lay-off. Shami's fitness has been a subject of debate in recent times after the pacer missed out on selection. However, despite the absence of a national call-up, the senior fast bowler has been a standout performer in domestic tournaments. Beginning with the red-ball season, Shami picked up 20 wickets from four Ranji Trophy matches at an average of 18.60, including a 5/38, as Bengal remain unbeaten from five outings after securing three outright wins to sit atop Group C. He carried his form into the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, finishing as Bengal's leading wicket-taker
Explosive India batter Rinku Singh was on Friday named Uttar Pradesh captain for the upcoming Vijay Hazare Trophy, marking his first stint as skipper at the senior state level. He succeeds Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who led the side in the recently-concluded Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Rinku, who led Meerut Mavericks to the UPT20 League title earlier this year, is keen to make the most of this opportunity. He scored 210 runs in nine innings at a strike rate of 161.54 largely as a finisher in the tournament. "It was a big opportunity for me to lead Meerut Mavericks in the UPT20 League, and I am happy that I could deliver," Rinku was quoted saying in ESPNCricinfo. "I really enjoyed captaincy as it allowed me to learn many things." In IPL, Rinku, the designated finisher for Kolkata Knight Riders, was retained by the franchise alongside Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Varun Chakravarthy and Ramandeep Singh. The reigning champions will have a new captain this season after they released Shreyas Iye
The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) has brushed aside Prithvi Shaw's emotional outburst after his exclusion from the Vijay Hazare Trophy squad, asserting that the temperamental batter has flouted disciplinary norms regularly and is "his own enemy". A senior official of the MCA, while talking to PTI, claimed that the side was at times "forced to hide" him on the field due to his poor fitness, discipline and attitude. Shaw had expressed his frustration at not being picked in the 16-member squad for the Vijay Hazare Trophy in a viral social media post some days ago after being a part of the side's title-winning Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy campaign. "In the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, we were playing with 10 fielders as we were forced to hide Prithvi Shaw. The ball would pass near him and he would barely be able to get to it," the official said on conditions of anonymity. "Even while batting, we could see he was troubled reaching to the ball. His fitness, discipline and attitude are poor and
Harshal Patel bowled a game-changing spell with the old ball as Haryana beat Rajasthan by 30 runs in a well-contested final to lift the Vijay Hazare Trophy here on Saturday. Having scored 287 for 8 in 50 overs, Haryana were given a tough fight by Rajasthan, who were cruising at 201 for 4 with opener Abhijeet Tomar (106 off 129 balls) along with Kunal Singh Rathore (79 off 65 balls) slowly taking the team towards the target. However, Harshal (3/47 in 9 overs) showed his wares by varying the pace of his deliveries in a game changing second five-over spell in which he gave away only 16 runs but picked both set batters to snuff out any chance that Rajasthan had. They were all-out for 257 in 48 overs. No praise is enough for all-rounder Sumit Kumar (3/34 in 6 overs), who ran through Rajasthan top-order after scoring a quickfire 28 not out off 16 balls and also took a blinder inside the circle to win the 'Player of Match' as well as 'Player of Series'. He scored 183 runs in lower-order a