Vijay Hazare Trophy: Upendra Yadav’s ton fires Uttar Pradesh into semis

Delhi [India], March 9 (ANI): Wicket-keeper batsman Upendra Yadav smashed a ton before Yash Dayal and Aaqib Khan picked three and two wickets respectively to help Uttar Pradesh defeat Delhi in the quarter-finals of the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy on Tuesday.
With this win, Uttar Pradesh qualified for the semi-finals of the tournament and will meet Gujarat on Thursday. In the other semi-final, Karnataka will lock horns with Mumbai on the same day.
Chasing 281 runs, Delhi suffered two early jolts as the side lost both openers in the first two overs. While Dhruv Shorey departed after scoring four runs, Hiten Dalal registered a golden duck.
Himmat Singh and Nitish Rana tried to rebuild the innings with a 56-run stand but Aaqib Khan broke the deadlock in the 15th over.
The wicket of Himmat triggered a collapse as Delhi lost Kshitiz Sharma and Nitish in quick intervals. Lalit Yadav and Anuj Rawat rose to the occasion but their 102-run stand wasn’t enough for the home side to get over the line.
With the ever-increasing required rate, Delhi crumbled in front of Uttar Pradesh and was bundled out for 234 runs.
Earlier after being put in to bat first, Uttar Pradesh got off to a bad start as they lost opener Abhishek Goswami in the third over. But skipper Karan Sharma’s gutsy half-century kept the scoreboard ticking for Uttar Pradesh despite the side losing wickets at regular intervals.
Madhav Kaushik, Priyam Garg, and Akshdeep Nath all went cheaply but skipper Karan along with Upendra stitched a 129-run stand for the fifth wicket to revive Uttar Pradhesh’s innings.
While Karan scored 83 runs off 100 balls, Upendra smashed a match-winning ton to steer Uttar Pradesh to 280/7 in the allotted 50 overs.
Brief Scores: Uttar Pradesh 280/7 (Upendra Yadav 112; Pradeep Sangwan 2-49); Delhi 234 (Lalit Yadav 61; Yash Dayal 3-53) (ANI)