Vijay Hazare Trophy 2020-21 News

Mumbai were crowned champions of the Vijay Hazare Trophy on Sunday after they defeated Uttar Pradesh in the title clash in Delhi's Arun Jaitley Stadium. Chasing a massive total of 313 runs, Mumbai rode on Aditya Tare’s maiden List A hundred and captain Shaw’s brisk 73 off 39 to get over the line in the 43rd over. Tare took 107 deliveries to score his unbeaten 118 runs. All-rounder Shivam Dube played a vital role in Mumbai’s win after he stitched a stand of 88 runs for the fourth wicket. Mumbai began the proceedings well after openers Shaw and Yashasvi Jaiswal put 89 runs on the board for the first wicket. But they lost a couple of wickets in quick succession to see Shams Mulani coming in at number 4. Tare and Mulani then steadied the ship for Mumbai and scored 88 runs for the third wicket. But Mulan’s departure in the 31st over had the side in a fair bit of bother before Dube and Tare joined hands and anchored the chase. Yash Dayal, Shivam Mavi, Shibam Sharma and Sameer Choudhary picked up a wicket each for Uttar Pradesh. Earlier, UP after winning the toss elected to bat first and posted 312/4 in 50 overs, courtesy an exceptional batting display from opener Madhav Kaushik. Kaushik remained not out on 158 off 156. Kaushik’s opening partner Samarth Sharma notched up a half-century as the two provided a good start to the team. Both the batsmen began the innings in a cautious manner but started to accelerate as soon as they got their eye in. UP did lose a couple of wickets in the middle overs but Akshdeep Nath and Kaushik’s partnership of 128 runs for the fourth wicket helped them posting a big total on the board. Tanush Kotian scalped a couple of wickets for Mumbai while Prashant Solanki had one to his name. Kaushik’s 158* is now the highest score in the Vijay Hazare Trophy Final while Shaw ended the tournament as the highest run-getter. The right-handed Mumbai batsman scored 827 runs in 8 matches at an average of 165.40 and four centuries. This is the fourth instance when Mumbai have lifted the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Winning captain Shaw hailed the team’s performance and credits everyone for success. “Everyone contributed in this tournament, it wasn't an individual. From the support staff, the players, this trophy goes to everyone. Tare batted so well today. It could have gone anyway in that situation and everyone was happy for him because finishing isn't easy. I have been captaining from a very young age. I have captained under-14s, under-16s, under-19s, India A and I enjoy this process. It was difficult in Australia, and the only thing I wanted to do was go back and work hard, fill the gaps and come back strongly,” he said.

The world came crashing down for Prithvi Shaw when he was dropped from the Indian Test team following twin failures in the first Test against Australia. His technique was ridiculed by cricket fans on social media and there was immense scrutiny of his technique which was ripped open by the Australian bowling attack. The torrid tour of Australia seems to be a long way back now as Shaw has come raring back into form in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy where he has plundered more than 750 runs with an astounding average of 188.5. And now, Shaw has opened up on his feelings while going through a rough patch and the right-hander has said that he stood once in front of the mirror to remind himself of his qualities irrespective of what the press critics were making him look like. “I was a bit confused, I was asking myself what was happening? Is there a problem with my batting? What is the problem? To pacify myself, I told myself it was a pink ball game against one of the finest bowling attacks in the world. The question was why was I getting bowled (Mitchell Starc in the first innings and Pat Cummins in the 2nd). I was down for sure. I stood in front of the mirror and said to myself ‘I am not as bad a player as everyone is saying I am’,” Shaw has said in an interview with The Indian Express. Shaw also said that he endured sleepless nights after facing the axe from the team, and he kept on telling him that ‘hard work defeats talents’ and that it was the time to pull up socks to resurrect batting technique and form. He also revealed the conversation he had with the batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar, who suggested him to make a minor change in batting style and asked him to play the balls with the bat closer to his body. “I met Sachin sir (Tendulkar) after I came back, he said don’t make too many changes and to just play as close to the body as I could. I was late on the ball. So during the entire Australia tour, I worked on that part. Maybe it was because I had gone to Australia after playing in Dubai (IPL),” Shaw said further in the interview. The path of return to the Indian Test team looks tough for Shaw as of now, but the confidence after coming back among runs will be a welcome boost for the right-hander as India are set for a long haul of Test cricket in the season following IPL 2021.

India and Mumbai batsman Prithvi Shaw had a forgettable Australian tour after he failed to leave an impression during the Test series Down Under after he only managed to score 4 runs in two innings. But the right-handed batsman was back in form in the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2021. Shaw who has been leading Mumbai in the domestic 50-over tournament notched up four tons till the semi-finals including a double-century during the course. Pravin Amre who is with the Delhi Capitals as their batting coach revealed the secret behind Shaw’s success in an interaction with Gulf News. ‘‘The Delhi management asked me to work with Shaw as he is one of our key batsmen and it’s imperative that he gets his touch back as soon as possible. I could just work with him for five days as he had to join the Mumbai camp,’’ said Amre. Amre further added that he worked on Shaw’s confidence and batting techniques. ‘‘See, the idea was to bring his confidence back, work on areas like how he could present a full face of the bat and a few other things, We were working at my clinic at Shivaji Park in Mumbai, where Shaw had played a lot of his cricket and was extremely comfortable,’’ he said. ‘‘Ours is still a work in progress, but it’s heartening to see how fearlessly Shaw is striking the ball again,’’ Amre added. Shaw scored two consecutive hundreds in the quarter-final against Saurashtra and then in the semi-final against Karnataka on the trot. His double-century in the Vijay Hazare Trophy came against Puducherry in Jaipur.

Sunrisers Hyderabad youngster Abhishek Sharma has beaten Virat Kohli to become the second fastest Indian to score a century in List A cricket. The 20-year-old Punjab cricketer smashed a 42-ball hundred while chasing a mammoth 403-run target against Madhya Pradesh in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy on Sunday, 28 February. Opening the innings for Punjab, Sharma was the only one to cross the 40-run mark for his team, fighting it out in the middle, while others perished around him. He was caught out in the 18th over after setting the stage on fire scoring 104 off 49 deliveries at a strike rate of over 200. The innings was 8 boundaries and 9 sixes. In his whirlwind innings, he dismantled the likes of Suryakumar Yadav and Virat Kohli who previously held the second and third spot behind Yusuf Pathan. While Kohli’s 52-ball century came against Australia back in 2013, Yadav recently dislodged the former for the second spot by completing his century in just 50 deliveries against Puducherry on 25 February. Sharma’s knock means that Sky and Kohli have been relegated to the third and fourth spot respectively. The wily left-hander was picked up by Sunrisers Hyderabad ahead of IPL 2020 and represented the side in eight matches. He picked up 2 wickets and scored 71 runs. A glimpse of his brilliance was seen in the match against CSK, where he and Priyam Garg, another SRH youngster, put together a crucial partnership of 77 runs to rescue the David Warner-led side from a disaster. Sharma was not out at 31 off 24 balls in that match. In other news, Karnataka batsman and Royal Challengers Bangalore batsman Devdutt Padikkal scored his third century in a row and now aggregates 572 runs from his last five matches.

The Delhi District Cricket Association has finally been given the opportunity to host domestic cricket. The DDCA will host the Knockouts of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, slated to begin from March 7. In total, there would be eight games that would be hosted by Delhi at two different venues i.e. Arun Jaitley Stadium and Services home ground of Palam. "We don't see any troubles, we are confident that the games will go on without any incident," a DDCA official was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz. Delhi has not had the opportunity to host any matches ever since domestic cricket resumed after the lockdown. Even after having a low covid-19 count, the Farmer Protest happening around the borders of Delhi had stopped BCCI from making any move to host matches in the city. Since Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium, which hosted the Knockouts of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, is occupied with International games between India and England, the BCCI chose Delhi as the replacement. While the teams have been asked to report to Delhi by March-2, the final will be played on March 14.

After suffering a setback in the form of omission from the Indian Test team, Prithvi Shaw has struck a magnificent double-century against Puducherry in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy. Shaw has been captaining the Mumbai team in the tournament and struck 31 boundaries and five sixes and piled on belligerent 227 runs remaining unbeaten after 152 balls. Riding on his double century and an equally dominating innings (58-ball-133) from Suryakumar Yadav Mumbai put on a mammoth 457 runs from 50 overs, the fourth-highest total in List A Cricket Shaw became only the seventh Indian batsman after Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Sanju Samson and Yashasvi Jaiswal to have scored a double century in List A games. He has been in red-hot form in the tournament and the double century was his second three-figure score in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Earlier, He had scored a century that helped his side register a big win over Delhi.