Haryana, on Saturday, won the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2023 after beating Rajasthan in the final by 30 runs at the Saurashtra Cricket Association (SCA) Stadium in Rajkot. It also happened to be Haryana’s maiden triumph in the history of the tournament. Rajasthan, on the other hand, finished as the runners-up for the second time after the 2006-07 edition of the championship.

After opting to bat first, Haryana put up a decent score of 287 for the loss of eight wickets. Opening batter Ankit Kumar lost his partner Yuvraj Singh early, but he kept his composure to score 88 runs off 91 balls with the help of 12 fours and one six.

Skipper Ashok Menaria held the middle order together with a knock of 70 runs off 96 balls with eight fours. It was a partnership of 124 runs between Menaria and Kumar that put Haryana in a position of command.

Rohit Pramod Sharma and Nishant Sindhu chipped in with handy knocks of 20 and 29 respectively. But with was Rahul Tewatia and Sumit Kumar’s efforts that took Haryana close to the 300-run mark.

Aniket Choudhary was the pick of the bowlers for Rajasthan after he finished with figures of 10-1-49-4. Arafat Khan got two scalps, but at an expensive economy rate of 8.40.

Abhijeet Tomar’s knock in vain

Rajasthan found themselves in all sorts of trouble in their run-chase after being reduced to 12 for three in 5.1 overs. Sumit Kumar dismissed Raj Mohan Chouhan and Mahipal Lomror and Deepak Hooda to take Haryana off to a flying start.

Thereafter, Abhijeet Tomar and Karan Lamba put their heads down to build a partnership of 68 runs for the fourth wicket. After Lamba perished for 20, Tomar joined hands with Kunal Singh Rathore and stitched together a stand of 121 runs.

Rathore was excellent in his stroke-play after he scored 79 runs off 65 balls with four fours and five sixes. Tomar, on the other hand, racked up a hundred and was looking good to taking his team past the finish line.

But against the run of play, Tomar departed as Harshal Patel gave Haryana the crucial breakthrough. Tomar scored 106 runs off 129 balls with 10 fours and two sixes.

After he got out, things went downhill for Rajasthan, who were bowled out for 257 in 48 overs. Apart from Sumit, Harshal also picked up three wickets.