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When needed the most, the mighty Mumbai’s batting came good and blew away Uttar Pradesh by chasing down the target of 313 runs with six wickets and 51 deliveries to spare.
The reward for this power-hitting display was a fourth Vijay Hazare (50-over) title at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground on Sunday.
Having reached the final by riding mainly on the shoulders of skipper Prithvi Shaw’s belligerent form, Mumbai covered the distance against UP by smashing 37 boundaries and eight sixes in 41.3 overs, once the young skipper set the pace.
Shaw ensured that UP’s joy of setting a challenging target was short lived. Dropped by rival skipper Karan Sharma when on five, Shaw raced away to a 39-ball 73 (10×4, 4×6) and ended the competitionc with a record aggregate of 827 runs.
He perished after top-edging an attempted-pull into the waiting hands of deep square-leg. The whirlwind opening stand of 89 off 9,1 overs put Mumbai ahead of the required run-rate and the side was never again seriously challenged by UP.
Thereafter, it was former captain Aditya Tare all the way. He hit an unbeaten 118 (107b, 18×4) and stitched two 88-run innings-building partnerships. For the third-wicket, Shams Mulani (36, 43b, 2×6) kept Tare’s company before being replaced by Shivam Dube (42, 28b, 6×4, 1×6) during the fourth-wicket partnership.
Earlier, opting to bat, UP managed to reach 312 for four — in spite of scoring just seven runs off the bat in the first seven overs — after opener Madhav Kaushik changed gears to score an unbeaten 156-ball 158 (15×4, 4×3).
For the opening wicket, Kaushik and Samarth Singh (55, 73b, 4×4, 2×3) raised 122 in 26 overs after seeing off disciplined opening spells of Dhawal Kulkarni and Tushar Deshpande. Kaushik put on another 128 runs with the more experienced Akshdeep Nath (55, 40b, 4×4, 3×6) for the fourth wicket.
The absence of an injured Kulkarni during the death-overs played its part in UP getting past the 300-run mark.
But once Shaw and Tare held centre-stage, by turns, the target appeared increasingly small.
Brief Scores:
Uttar Pradesh 312/4 (Madhav Kaushik 158 not out, Akshdeep Nath 55; Tanush Kotian 2/54, Prashant Solanki 1/71) lost to Mumbai 315/4 (Aditya Tare 118 not out, Prithvi Shaw 73, Shivam Mavi 1/63) by six wickets.
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