Andhra thrash Delhi, Saurashtra beat Baroda to enter Vijay Hazare semis

New Delhi, Feb. 22: Delhi’s much- vaunted batting line up fell like a pack of cards as unheralded Andhra Pradesh reached the semifinals of the Vijay Hazare Trophy with a six- wicket victory here on Thursday.

Medium pacer Siva Kumar ( 4/ 29 in 10 overs) and leftarm spinner Bharghav Bhatt ( 3/ 28 in 7.1 overs) wreaked havoc as Delhi were skittled out for 111 in 32.1 overs. In reply, Andhra reached the target in 28.4 overs with Ricky Bhui ( 32) and Ashwin Hebbar ( 38) scoring bulk of the runs.

Andhra opted to field on a wicket that didn’t have any demons but none of the Delhi batsmen were willing to stay at the crease long enough to put up a substantial score. Unmukt Chand ( 4) was bowled by an incoming delivery from Siva while Gambhir ( 8) gave a simple catch to B. Sumath.

Young Hiten Dalal ( 11) also played across the line to be castled with Delhi reeling at 33/ 3 in 9 overs. Siva, who bowled at late 120kmph, did nothing exceptional save pitching it up and Delhi

batsmen didn’t show requisite application.

Nitish Rana ( 2) couldn’t get going as he completely missed the line of military medium pace bowler Bandaru Ayappa. Rishabh Pant ( 38) and Dhruv Shorey ( 21) tried to stem the rot with 36- run stand for fifth wicket but inept shot selection saw them lose six wickets for 35 runs. Shorey misread the flight of Bhatt’s delivery and was stumped but it was Pant whose atrocious shot selection stood out.

With more than 20 overs left, Pant miscued a pull shot off Siva’s half tracker to be caught by Bhatt at mid wicket boundary. Once Pant was out, there was no resistance shown by the tail.

Meanwhile, Young Arpit Vasavada kept his composure during the end overs as his 43- ball- 45 enabled a safe passage for Saurashtra into the semi- finals beating Baroda by three wickets.

While Maharashtra will play Karnataka in the first semi- final, Saurashtra by virtue of their quarter- final win will meet Andhra in the second semi- final.

Chasing a target of 248, Saurashtra crossed the finishing line in 48.4 overs courtesy Vasavada and useful contributions up the order from opener Avi Barot ( 82) and skipper Cheteshwar Pujara ( 40). The match could have been a lopsided affair after Saurashtra had left Baroda tottering at 105/ 7 in 22.3 overs before Mumbai Indians star Krunal Pandya ( 61, 75 balls) and Soaeb Tai ( 72 no, 91 balls) added 97 runs for the eighth wicket to give the team total some semblance of respectability.