Saurashtra beat Maharashtra in the final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy despite a superb hundred from Maha skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad. And the man who had canceled his ton was none other than 33-year-old Chirag Jani who had earlier taken a hattrick as Maharasthra managed to post 248 runs on the board.
While Unadkat (1/25 with 41 dot balls) was Saurashtra’s bowling hero in the first 10 overs, keeping the dangerous Gaikwad under tight leash, the last 10 overs of the Maharashtra innings belonged to all-rounder Chirag Jani. The seam bowling all-rounder’s 48th over hat-trick (Saurabh Nawale, Rajvardhan Hagargekar and Vicky Ostwal) did stop Maharashtra from adding at least 20 more runs.
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Bowling wicket-to-wicket, Jani cleaned up Nawale and Hangargekar and then sealed his hat-trick, trapping Vicky Ostwal plumb in front. Maharashtra managed just two boundaries and scored 37 runs losing five wickets in the next seven overs in a crucial turning point for Saurashtra.
Jani played his all-round role to perfection as he even scored a valuable 30 unbeaten runs off 25 balls to help Saurashtra stay in the hunt. He was at the other end when Jackson hit the winning runs.
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Later Sheldon Jackson played one of the most important innings of his career, an unbeaten 133, to guide Saurashtra to their second Vijay Hazare Trophy title as they comfortably beat Maharashtra by five wickets in the final.
Jani’s skipper Jayadev Unadkat later said that Jani deserved to play for India.
“Chirag Jani has been excellent and if there is one player in the side who deserves to play at the highest level, it’s him,” he said at the post match presentation.
Earlier Saurashtra’s well-oiled bowling unit led by its skipper, tamed a formidable batting line-up from Maharashtra before old domestic warhorse Jackson’s unbeaten century overshadowed national contender Ruturaj Gaikwad’s 108 to chase down a target of 249 with 21 balls to spare.
“I think the toss did play a crucial role, we were lagging behind. It was 30-70 percent of advantage/disadvantage. After 30-40 overs, we were ahead. Batting first, 250 was a very good total,” Gaikwad said after the match.
In the middle overs, it was another Gaikwad show as he carved his name as a ‘Vijay Hazare legend’ with his 12th hundred (highest in competition history) with seven fours and four sixes. He thus had three hundreds in three knock-out games but on a slowish track, Saurashtra bowlers never really let the Maharashtra batters dominate with second best score being Azim Kazi’s 31.
With Saurashtra bowlers making the perfect execution against him, Gaikwad clearly fought hard for his hundred that was evident with his roaring celebration when he notched his century off a boundary against Jani.
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