MAHA vs PUN

That brings us to the end of our coverage from this quarter final encounter from the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Till the next time, this is myself (Arya Sekhar Chakraborty) biding adieu also on behalf of my fellow commentator and good mate Bidipto Datta. 

Ruturaj Gaikwad (Maharashtra captain): Not really thrilled but happy to get the win. The kind of bathing they had and the way we bowled it was great. It's an achievement but it's about going that extra step and doing extra. The mindset and temperament has changed. Arshin has showed a lot of experience. We would have easily ended up scoring 300 but its a good learning going forward. Nikhil Naik has been working very hard. He is someone capable of scoring those runs in IPL and international cricket as well.

Arshin Kulkarni is the Player of the Match, here is what he had to say: I had been waiting for this match. I was visualising this moment before the match. I was playing U 23 before so it was a good transition. I managed to convert the loose ball into boundaries. Yeah I always believed that I can capitalise once the innings is stabilized. Yeah it has helped me a lot practicing against top quality bowlers.

Abhishek Sharma (Punjab captain): As a batting unit, this was a chase that should have been. They bowled really well and out young batting unit did not quite live up to the weight of the expectation. We should have restricted them to 250, but anyway, I felt we had this under control. But as I said, they bowled well. Throughout the group stage, Prabhsimran Singh and I batted a lot and so, the others did not get much of a go. I won't put it as an excuse though! 

Maharashtra won by 70 runs

Arshin Kulkarni 107(137) | Mukesh Choudhary 3/44(8)
Arshdeep Singh 49(39) | Arshdeep Singh 3/56(10)

It turned out to be a thoroughly professional performance with the ball from Maharashtra as they ended up defeating a much fancier Punjab by 70 runs to get through to the semi final. At the halfway stage, it looked Punjab was better placed given how explosive their batting line up was. Out came Prabhsimran Singh and Abhishek Sharma to open the innings and the duo again came out with a positive frame of mind. 

Prabhsimran in particular struggled for timing in the first couple of overs before Mukesh Choudhary cleaned him up with a peach of an away swinger. Mukesh kept working out the Punjab top order as he dismissed Abhishek Sharma and Nehal Wadhera in quick succession to reduce them to 50/3. Pradeep Dadhe started off in a clinical fashion and bagged the wicket of Ramandeep Singh to put Punjab in further pressure. 

That is when Anmol Malhotra and Anmolpreet Singh shared a brief stand of 27 runs but they lacked the intent and the required rate kept climbing up on a consistent basis. Naman Dhir and Anmolpreet shared a good stand but the boundaries were few and far between and it eventually resulted in the wicket of Naman. Anmolpreet went into his shell which kept applying pressure on the other batters. 

He was eventually dismissed on 48 off 77 deliveries. All seemed lost for Punjab when Arshdeep Singh showed the top order batters how to bat on this surface. He smoked three fours and three sixes during his knock of 49. He was the last man to get dismissed as Maharashtra registered a 70 run win to qualify for the semi final.

44.4 Pradeep Dadhe to Arshdeep Singh, MAHARASHTRA ARE IN THE SEMI-FINALS OF THE VIJAY HAZARE TROPHY! Length ball around off-stump. Arshdeep stayed inside the crease, swung the bat hard with the front leg cleared, but failed to time it. The ball went high up in the air and long-on got under it to take a safe catch and end the match! 

Arshdeep Singh c Ruturaj Gaikwad b Pradeep Dadhe 49 (39b, 3x4, 3x6)

44.3 Pradeep Dadhe to Arshdeep Singh, good length ball around off-stump. Clubbed down the ground from deep in the crease to the left of long-off for a couple more runs. 

44.2 Pradeep Dadhe to Arshdeep Singh, full outside off-stump. Drilled down to long-off from deep in the crease but the single is refused. Correct decision! 

44.1 Pradeep Dadhe to Arshdeep Singh, over the wicket, back of a length on off-stump. Pulled away off the back foot to the left of deep mid-wicket for a couple of runs. The fielders in the deep there were a bit clueless about what to do! 

Another over ticks by and Maharashtra in a pole position to seal the game anytime soon. This has been a below par showing from the Punjab batters and it's Arshdeep who is showing how to bat on this surface. 

43.6 Mukesh Choudhary to Arshdeep Singh, yorker again, this time on leg-stump. Arshdeep makes room and scuffs it down to long-on for a single to keep strike. 

43.5 Mukesh Choudhary to Baltej Singh, good length ball on off-stump. Pushed to the right of point off the back foot for a single now. 200 comes up for Punjab. 

43.3 Mukesh Choudhary to Arshdeep Singh, FOUR! Right up in the block hole on middle-stump. Arshdeep backs away and somehow gets a piece of willow on it to get it between the keeper and short third for a boundary! 

43.2 Mukesh Choudhary to Baltej Singh, round the wicket, Oh! Full outside off-stump. Outside-edged from the crease with a push away from the body down to third man for a single. 

43.1 Mukesh Choudhary to Raghu Sharma, DIRECT-HIT! IS IT A RUN OUT? YES, IT IS! Good length ball on the pads. Tucked around to square-leg on the front foot for a single. The second too gets attempted, but it seems as though Raghu is short of his crease at the striker's end! Third umpire confirms that it indeed is! Veer the fielder there!