Baroda demolish Nagaland by 140 runs in Vijay Hazare Trophy  

Riding on half centuries from Mitesh Patel, Vishnu Solanki, and Abhimanyu Singh, Baroda posted a mammoth 299/5 against Nagaland on Monday at Dadoji Konddeo Stadium and won the match by a huge margin of 140 runs.

In the third round of Group E in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, Nagaland won the toss and elected to bowl first. The match was delayed due to wet outfield as it rained on Sunday. The proceedings began at 11.30am. The match was reduced to 35 overs per side. The ground staff at Dadoji Konddeo Stadium did well to dry the ground and matched their counterpart at the Brabourne Stadium, where the game began around the same time.

The cloudy conditions and a bit of moisture on the pitch helped the fast bowlers of Nagaland. Right arm speedster R S Jaganath provided the perfect start to Nagaland as he struck in the very first over of the innings. However, Baroda bounced back as they consolidated well and stitched crucial partnerships along the way. Patel (75 runs off 74 balls) and captain Solanki (84 runs off 60 balls) stitched a 132-run partnership for the fourth wicket to take the game away from Nagaland. Singh with his blitzkrieg unbeaten knock of 62 from 21 powered Baroda to 299.

Chasing 300 in 35 overs with the asking rate of over 8.5 runs per over from the start was always going to be difficult for Nagaland. Playing under pressure, they lost three wickets in six overs and from there making a comeback was difficult. Left arm spinner Ninad Rathva made the most of the conditions which assisted spinners in the latter half of the game. He broke the back of Nagaland’s batting, picking three wickets for just 25 runs. Perhaps the only positive for Nagaland from this match was the 73-run partnership between Hokaito Zhimomi (40 runs off 56 balls) and Jaganath (30 runs off 41 balls).

“We would have loved to bowl first too. However, when were put to bat first, we set a target of 280+ in 35 overs and aimed to bowl them out under 100.” Solanki told Thanevaibhav after the match.

Reflecting on his batting, Solanki said, “When I went in to bat, it was turning a bit. So, I decided to play carefully against the spinners and then attack the fast bowlers. My aim was to bat deep. Also, the conditions suited us as we are used to playing on red soil wickets in Baroda.”

The next match at Dadoji Konddeo Stadium will be played on November 29 between Bengal and Madhya Pradesh. Madhya Pradesh boasts of big players like Rajat Patidar, Venkatesh Iyer, and Kumar Kartikeya, while Bengal will feature Shahbaz Ahmed, Ishan Porel, Abishek Porel, and Akash Deep in their playing XI. Madhya Pradesh have won all their three matches while Bengal have won two of their three fixtures. The match will start at 9 am.