Vijay Hazare Trophy has never made headlines on a regular basis until MS Dhoni decided to captain Jharkhand for its 2017 edition. Dhoni’s fans could only see him captain a side for Jharkhand after he got sacked from Rising Pune Supergiants a day before the IPL Auction 2017. Dhoni’s performance has been making rounds on the internet as soon as he took the captaincy on his shoulders.
This time around he is in news after managing to defend a score as low as 125 against Saurashtra on March 1. Saurashtra were invited to chase a lowly target of 126 in the league match of Vijay Hazare Trophy at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. With a score, this low to defend everyone thought that there is no coming back for Jharkhand after this. But, Dhoni almost everytime has other plans in situations like these.
His tactics in the initial stages of innings created pressure on Saurashtra batsmen. They got their first breakthrough in the third over as pacer Varun Aaron drew first blood. After the first one they kept on losing wickets and before they could recover they found themselves struggling at 60 for 6. It was a matter of time before Dhoni tightened the screws and lay down his final assault to bundle out his opponent for 83, well short of the target.
Aaron spearheaded the attack and took 4 wickets along with Rahul Shukla. Jaskaran Singh too chipped in with 2 wickets despite going for runs. His dynamic tactics must have made Rising Pune Supergiants regret their decision of sacking a captain like Dhoni from the captaincy.
Earlier, Jharkhand batting lineup failed to impress with an exception of opener Ishan Kishan who scored a quickfire 53 form 40 which included 5 fours and 4 sixes. Apart from him only Ishank Jaggi and Dhoni could manage to reach double digits.
Dhoni tried to recover the innings after initial batting collapse but wickets kept falling on the other end. As a result, Dhoni also lost his wicket in an attempt to score at a brisk rate.
For Saurashtra, Shaurya Sanandia took a fifer whereas Kushang Patel took 4 wickets. Agnivesh Ayachi too chipped in with a wicket.
Brief Scores
Saurashtra 83 all out in 25.1 overs (Sheldon Jackson 20, Snell Patel 15; Varun Aaron 4 for 20, Rahul Shukla 4 for 32) lose to Jharkhand 125 all out in 27.3 overs (Ishan Kishan 53, MS Dhoni 23; Shaurya Sanandia 5 for 47, Kushang Patel 4 for 39) by 42 runs.
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