Vijay Hazare: Pawan Negi, Navdeep Saini pull-off thrilling win over Jharkhand to carry Delhi into final

Pawan Negi jumped the years to when he was a hot pick in Indian cricket. Batting at nine, Negi scored an unbeaten 39 and added a match-winning 51-run stand with Navdeep Saini (13), to help Delhi pull-off a sensational two-wicket victory over Jharkhand in the second semi-final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy in Bengaluru on Thursday.

Delhi will face Mumbai in the final at the same venue on Saturday.

Chasing a modest total of 200, Delhi looked to be cruising towards victory with Gautam Gambhir (27) and Dhurv Shorey (15) steading the ship after Unmukt Chand, who set his side off to a flyer, was dismissed on 17 from just 13 balls.

But Jharkhand medium pacer Anand Singh wreaked havoc by claiming three wickets to leave Delhi reeling at 87 for four from comfortably seating at 50-1. Nitish Rana then held fort and took them closer with a fighting 60-ball 39 before Shahbaz Nadeem, who surprisingly had bowled just one over until then, cleaned him up. Once again wickets fell in pair and Delhi found themselves struggling from 123 for five to 133/7. It went to 149 for eight as Jharkhand found a little sniff for a memorable victory.

But Negi and Saini ensured no more fall of wickets batting together for 12 overs for a 51-run partnership. Run-rate was never a factor after the manner in which Chand had started the innings, smashing Varun Aaron for consecutive boundaries. And Negi, whose innings had five fours and a six ensured just that with Saini.

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The latter was named the Man of the Match for his all-round performance. With the ball, he had taken four wickets for just 30 runs to dismantle the Jharkhand batting order. But the victory was so much more for Negi, who has slipped off the radar after breaking through in 2015 with Chennai Super Kings. He bagged a million dollar IPL contract the very next year, but it only brought his downfall.

Earlier, sent into bat first, Jharkhand found themselves struggling at 85/6 as Saini and Kulwant Khejroliya ran riot with the ball. Saini dismissed Ishan Kishan (0), Saurabh Tiwary (6), Kumar Deobrat (3), while Khejrolia removed Anand Singh (36) and Shasheem Sanjay Rathour (5) as the eastern state found themselves in a spot of bother without anything substantial on board.

Virat Singh scored 71 from 91 balls to rescue his side, stitching two half-century stands with Nadeem (29) and Varun Aaron (11) for the seventh and ninth wicket respectively. He was the last man out in the penultimate over but only after giving the bowlers a respectable total to fight for.

Brief scores: Delhi 203/8 in 49.3 overs (Pawan Negi 39*, Nitish Rana 39; Anand Singh 3/39) beat Jharkhand 199 in 48.5 overs (Virat Singh 71; Shahbaz Nadeem (29); Navdeep Saini 4-30) by two wickets.

Image Source: India Today