Haryana cricket team's memorable Vijay Hazare Trophy campaign has continued and witnessed them making it to the final for the first time in history. Haryana, who made the semi-final of the domestic one-day competition last 13 seasons ago in 2010-11, have finally broken the jinx as they beat the consistent Tamil Nadu side by 63 runs in the semi-final on Wednesday, December 13 in Rajkot. Haryana have now won all nine games in the competition so far and now are one step away from getting their hands on the trophy.
The start wasn't the best for Haryana who lost the first wicket for just 14 but then Himanshu Rana took it upon himself to take his side to the safer shores after skipper Ashok Menaria won the toss and opted to bat first. Rana stitched a 132-run stand with opener Yuvraj Singh as TN bowlers didn't have a clue what hit them. Yuvraj got out for 65 but Rana continued and smashed a sensational century.
Sumit Kumar in the lower order hit a 30-ball 48 and despite a power order collapse, Haryana got to a strong score of 293 runs with Himanshu top-scoring with 116.
Tamil Nadu didn't have a great start with the bat as they were four down by the 21st over. Jagadeesan and Vijay Shankar got starts but Haryana bowlers Sumit, Kamboj and Nishant Sindhu didn't let them settle for one bit. Baba Indrajith despite the stitches after being hit by the ball on his lips, gave some hope to his side with a gritty knock of 65 with skipper Dinesh Karthik providing decent support.
But the required rate got too steep for the five-time champions to chase down as they eventually fell apart and were bowled out for 230. Kamboj was the pick of the bowlers with a four-for while Rahul Tewatia, Harshal Patel, Sindhu and Sumit chipped in. Yuzvendra Chahal, who is now in South Africa for the ODIs, will be gushing seeing his team reach the final but he would know what's the priority right now.
Haryana will now wait for the winner of the second semi-final between Rajasthan and Karnataka to see who they meet in the final on Saturday, December 16.
