Abhijeet Tomar scored 111 off 125 balls.© X/@BCCIdomestic
Opener Abhijeet Tomar struck a well-paced hundred as Rajasthan recorded their first ever win over Tamil Nadu in Vijay Hazare Trophy history to enter the quarterfinals in Vadodara on Thursday. At the Kotambi Stadium, Tomar (111 off 125) shared a 160-run stand with skipper Mahipal Lomror (60 off 49) for the second wicket to set the platform for Rajasthan’s 267 all out in 47.3 overs. Tamil Nadu and India mystery spinner Varun Chakaravarthy outfoxed the opposition to take a five-wicket haul but it was not enough to get his team over the line.
Chakaravarthy (18 off 22) also chipped in the with the bat as wickets kept falling at the other end before being the last man to be dismissed, limiting Tamil Nadu to 248 all out in 47.1 overs.
Rajasthan pacer Aman Singh Shekhawat (3/58) dropped one short and the ball got big on Chakaravarthy who was caught at long-on.
Rajasthan will face Vidarbha in the quarterfinals scheduled on Sunday.
The star for the winning team was undoubtedly Tomar who struggled a bit against the new ball before gaining in confidence to complete his fourth List A hundred.
He played all around the ground and his innings included 12 fours and four sixes. Tomar brought up a memorable hundred with a single in the 30th over.
In the other Preliminary quarterfinal staged at Motibaug Cricket Ground, Haryana bulldozed over Bengal by 72 runs following an all-rounder effort form Parth Vats (62 off 77) and Nishant Sandhu (64 off 67), who struck half-centuries before taking couple of wickets each.
S P Kumar came up with a timely cameo down the order to push the score to 298 for nine in 50 overs. Mohammad Shami, playing his third game of the tournament, picked up three wickets but Bengal came a cropper in the run chase, folding up for 226 in 43.1 overs.
Haryan take on Gujarat in a quarterfinal scheduled on Saturday. The other two quarterfinals will be played between Karnataka and Baroda, and, Maharashtra and Punjab.
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