Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Rajasthan, and Haryana qualified for the semi-finals of the 2023/24 Vijay Hazare Trophy.
Shortly after being selected in India’s ODI team, Yuzvendra Chahal (4-37) defeated Bengal for 225in Rajkot, the city where all four quarter-final matches were held . Shahbaz Ahmed (100) is the only Bengal batsman to reach 25 hits.
Ankit Kumar (102 off 102 balls) started Haryana’s chase. Bengal reduced the team to his 14-2 and then 204-6, but Rahul his Tewatia and Sumit his Kumar took home his four wickets and his 29 balls. Guaranteed to return.
In the semi-finals, Haryana will face Tamil Nadu, who defeated Mumbai by seven wickets. Despite Prasad Pawar (59 off 58 balls) and Shivam Dube (45 off 49 balls) scoring 82 runs, Mumbai struggled with Varun Chakravarthy (3-37) and Sai Kishore (3 -51), they only scored 227 points.
Tamil Nadu fought back and were reduced to 103-3, but Baba Aparajith (103 not out off 98 balls) secured victory with seven wickets in 44 overs.
Mahipal Romrol (122 not out off 114 balls) and Kunal Rathore (66 off 52 balls) helped Rajasthan to a score of 267-8 against Kerala. For Kerala he was bowled out for 67 in 21 overs. He needed only three bowlers for Rajasthan – Aniket Chaudhry (4-26), Arafat Khan (3-20) and Khaleel Ahmed (2-15).
Vidarbha could not recover from Vijaykumar Vishak’s opener (4-44) in the fourth quarter-final match. 4 for 39, then he went up to 7 for 119 and was sent off for 173.
Ravikumar Samarth (72 not out) and Mayank Agarwal (51) added 82 for the first wicket as Karnataka ended their chase just after the 40-over mark and booked a semi-final date against Rajasthan .
Out of the four teams, neither Haryana nor Rajasthan has ever won the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Tamil Nadu has won the trophy five times (including a joint title with Uttar Pradesh in 2004-05) and Karnataka four times.
Vijay Hazare Trophy 2023/24 semi-final and final schedule:
All timings local
Semi-finals
13. December, 2:30pm, Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Rajkot: Haryana vs. Tamil Nadu
14. December, 2.30pm, Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium C, Rajkot: Karnataka vs Rajasthan
Final
16. December, 2.30pm, Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Rajkot: TBA vs TBA
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