Mumbai down Delhi to win Vijay Hazare trophy

Bengaluru: A century stand between Aditya Tare and Siddhesh Lad helped Mumbai get the better of Delhi in a keenly-contested final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy one-day tournament here at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday. Mumbai chased down the target of 178 with 15 overs and four wickets in hand to regain the title that they last won in 2006-07.

Delhi pacer Navdeep Saini’s superb opening spell had left Mumbai in disarray at 40 for four, but a superb counter-attack from Tare (71) and Lad (48) revived their chase.

After dismissing the likes of Prithvi Shaw, Ajinkya Rahane and Suryakumar Yadav, the on-song Saini had Lad, who was yet to get off the mark, caught at point only to be denied the wicket for over-stepping.

Mumbai still required 33 when Tare was trapped by Manan Sharma. Lad then missed out on what would have been a deserving half-century by just two runs.

Mumbai skipper Shreyas Iyer heaped praise on Tare and Lad for their brilliant batting. “They have always performed well under pressure. Today, we believed in them because we knew that they would finish off the game,” said Shreyas.

It was a dominant show by Mumbai who remained unbeaten through the tournament. “It’s amazing. The consistency that we have shown in the tournament has been brilliant. The lower order batsmen hardly got a chance to bat and today when they got an opportunity, they showed what they are made up of. We are a perfect team that is why we have won,” beamed Shreyas.

Earlier, Dhawal Kulkarni and Tushar Deshpande made full use of the conditions to remove Delhi openers Gautam Gambhir and Unmukt Chand early. Delhi who struggled to stitch partnerships suffered a blow when Pawan Negi was forced to retire following an injury on his right hand.

Brief scores: Delhi 177 in 45.4 overs (Himmat Singh 41, Dhruv Shorey 31, Dhawal Kulkarni 3/30, Shivam Dube 3/29) lost to Mumbai 180/6 in 35 overs (Aditya Tare 71, Siddhesh Lad 48, Navdeep Saini 3/53).