Playing in only his eighth List-A match, Shubham Arora announced himself on the big stage with a brilliant unbeaten 136 (131b, 13x4, 1x6) to power Himachal Pradesh to its maiden Vijay Hazare Trophy title, defeating Tamil Nadu by 11 runs in the final at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium here on Sunday.
Chasing 315, Himachal was cruising along at 299 for four in 47.3 overs when bad light stopped play and emerged victorious on the VJD method.
Arora did not waste any time in going after the Tamil Nadu new ball bowlers Sandeep Warrier and R. Silambarasan and got his side off to a flier. He started with couple of boundaries through point and over mid-off off Silambarasan before hitting Warrier for three boundaries in the fifth over.
Amit bats well
Spinners Sai Kishore and Washington brought Tamil Nadu back into the game with two quick wickets. But Amit Kumar (74, 79b, 6x4) and Arora added 148 for the fourth wicket and took the game away from Tamil Nadu.
While Amit took his chances and found boundaries at regular intervals, player-of-the-match Arora nudged it around to bring up his maiden List-A century off 95 balls.
As light started fading, Tamil Nadu was forced to use only spinners from the 36th over. After Amit’s dismissal, skipper Rishi Dhawan ensured there were no further hiccups as he went after the Tamil Nadu spinners, slamming five boundaries and a six in no time, to finish unbeaten on 42 off just 23 balls.
Earlier, electing to field, Himachal seized the upper hand by reducing Tamil Nadu to 40 for four in the 15th over before Dinesh Karthik slammed a fine 116 (103b, 8x4, 7x6) to help his side recover and finish strongly.
Big partnership
He was well supported by B. Indrajith (80, 71b, 8x4, 1x6) as the pair added 202 for the fifth wicket before M. Shahrukh Khan cracked a quickfire 42 (21b, 3x4, 3x6).
Tactically, Tamil Nadu made some interesting choices by drafting in M. Ashwin, who did not play a single match in the tournament, for M. Siddharth. It also sent in the leg-spinner at No. 4, ahead of accomplished batters like Washington Sundar, who made a match-winning 70 in the semifinal against Saurashtra, Vijay Shankar and B. Indrajith.
The scores:
Tamil Nadu 314 in 49.4 overs (Dinesh Karthik 116, B. Indrajith 80, Shahrukh Khan 42, Pankaj Jaiswal 4/59) lost to Himachal Pradesh 299/4 in 47.3 overs (Shubham Arora 136 n.o., Amit Kumar 74, Rishi Dhawan 42 n.o.). Himachal won by 11 runs in VJD method. MoM: Shubham Arora.
