Vijay Hazare Trophy: Vishnu Solanki’s century powers Baroda to victory against Bihar

Vijay Hazare Trophy: Vishnu Solanki’s century powers Baroda to victory against Bihar

Vishnu Solanki’s brilliant century (109, 102b, 12×4, 2×6) fashioned Baroda’s 36-run win against Bihar and kept the team in the hunt in the Vijay Hazare Trophy One-Day cricket championship Group E match at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium on Tuesday.

Put to bat, Baroda was in a spot of bother at 88 for four in 21 overs with opener Shashwat Rawat (24), Ninad Rathva (7), Atit Sheth (36, 39b, 4×4) and captain Krunal Pandya (8) back in the pavilion in the wake of a discipline bowling performance, led by pacer Amod Yadav, who eventually completed a creditable four-wicket haul.

Wicketkeeper-batter Solanki’s impressive knock also saw him hit a six to reach his 50 and celebrate that with two beautifully timed fours in one over off leg-spinner Himanshu Singh. And, he celebrated his century with the now-familiar ‘Pushpa’ style.

Southpaw Shivalik Sharma’s handy contribution (39, 46b, 3×4) was the other major factor which helped Baroda post a challenging score of 277 in 49 overs.

When the chase was on, the genius of 13-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi (71, 42b, 8×4, 4×6) was on full display. With an age-defying range of strokes and most of his six clearing the boundary by a distance, Suryavanshi threatened to take the game away with a superb onslaught.

But he fell to the guiles of the experienced left-arm spinner Krunal as he went for another big heave and was caught brilliantly, via relay effort, by Shivalik Sharma near the mid-wicket fence in the 13th over.

Later, but for the gritty captain Sakibul Gani (43, 82b, 2×4) and a belligerent wicketkeeper-batter Bipin Saurabh (40, 42b, 2×4,3×6), Bihar batters clearly struggled once the run-flow was plugged, forcing them to play poor strokes.

Baroda’s left-arm spinner Ninad Rathva finished with an impressive four-wicket haul.