Vijay Hazare meet gets Ashwin, Vijay boost

CHENNAI: The presence of off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and Test opener Murali Vijay gives Tamil Nadu an advantage in the Vijay Hazare Trophy Group ‘C’, when the one-day domestic matches begin from Monday. The host start against Gujarat.

Ashwin, who has been out of the India ODI side since the West Indies series in 2017, will aim to be among the wickets and impress the selectors again.

The lanky off-spinner, who was recently snapped up by Kings XI Punjab in the IPL auctions, did well in the first two Tests of the series against South Africa before missing the third.

His experience could be vital for Tamil Nadu’s bowling unit in what are likely to be high-scoring conditions.

Vijay, on the other hand hasn’t featured in the limitedovers format for a while now. He will look to use the tournament to run into form ahead of this year’s IPL. He has been picked by Chennai Super Kings (CSK).

The team led by all-rounder Vijay Shankar is a mix of youth and experience and the presence of Ashwin and Vijay adds strength to the line-up.

J&K STUN MUMBAI

LUCKNOW: A superb six on the penultimate ball of the innings by Akash Choudhary helped Jammu & Kashmir stun favourites Mumbai by one-wicket in a pre-quarterfinal of the Under-23 one-day meet, at the Kamla Club ground in Kanpur on Sunday.

In other pre-quarterfinal match of the day, Kerala defeated Bihar by 116 runs.

J&K needed 12 runs to win in the last six balls with just two wickets in hand while chasing 298 in 50 over.

Auqib Nabi was caught first ball of the over but Choudhary drove his team to a memorable win.