THE back to back twin losses notwithstanding, Vidarbha qualified for the Vijay Hazare Trophy quarter-finals as Group B toppers as other results in the final round did no harm to them as the overnight leaders. In their seventh and final match against Services played at KL Saini Stadium in Jaipur on Tuesday, Vidarbha lost by a narrow margin of 15 runs. In response to Servcies’ 282-6, Vidarbha were restricted to 267-8. Vidarbha were once again given a rocking start as openers Atharva Taide (45; 39b, 9x4) and Dhruv Shorey (85; 85b, 8x4) raced to 79 in just 11.3 overs. All the batters who followed the duo, did get starts but none converted those into anything substantial. Next best was talented all-rounder Harsh Dubey (29; 37b, 1x4, 1x6) and was the only batter along with number ten Umesh Yadav who hit a six.

Southpaw Shubham Dubey, who has had a brilliant run in the preceding Syed Mushtaq Ali Twenty20 Tournament scored 20 from 30 balls with two hits to the fence.

 

For Services, who do not boast of any big names, Arjun Sharma, Poonam Poonia and Varun Choudhary picked two wickets each. Earlier, put into bat, Services managed a good score courtesy a hundred from opener Shubham Rohilla (109; 141b, 11x4) who paced his innings very well. After Akshay Karnewar (10-1-49-2) struck twice to reduce them to 2-33 in 8.5 overs, Rohilla got good support from skipper Rajat Paliwal (32; 50b, 2x4) and Vikas Hathwala (75; 64b, 6x4, 3x6). Yadav snared two wickets while Harsh and Darshan Nalkande chipped in with one apiece.

 

Both Maharashtra and Services also finished with 20 points from five wins but had poorer net run rate as compared to that of Vidarbha. Though Maharashtra hammered 427-6 and recorded a 167-run win over Manipur (260-6), it was not enough to displace Vidarbha from the top spot which they had held since start of the tournament. Now, Maharashtra who finished second in the group, will have to play pre-quarters.