Jurel hits century as UP complete hat-trick of wins
LUCKNOW, Dec. 30 -- Young keeper-batter Dhruv Jurel was part of Team India's ODI squad that played South Africa early this month, but he couldn't break into the Playing XI as the squad had two more wicketkeepers in the form of KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant.
But this didn't disappoint Jurel as on Monday, he reminded the selectors about his consistency as a solid keeper-batter, hitting his maiden List A century and helped former champions Uttar Pradesh notch up a comprehensive 54-run win over Baroda to complete their hattrick of wins in as many matches in the Vijay Hazare Trophy at Rajkot.
Agra's Jurel, 24, struck an unbeaten 160 as Uttar Pradesh piled up their season-best 369/7 after being sent to bat first. This knock also helped Jurel to become the highest run-scorer from Uttar Pradesh in this format after Aryan Juyal's 159 in the past. It was also Uttar Pradesh's third all-time best total in the Vijay Hazare Trophy as two previous bests were 387/5 against Kerala in 2016-17 and 370/5 against Maharashtra in 2016-17.
Chasing a huge target on Monday, Baroda despite having a good start, could make 350 in 50 overs with young leg-spin duo of Zeeshan Ansari and Vipraj Nigam once again showing their consistency, sharing five wickets between them.
Shashwat Rawat (60, 69b, 7x4) and Shivalik Sharma (30, 36b, 5x4) stitched together 72 runs for the opening wicket to lay a solid start for Baroda, but as the two departed in quick succession, wickets started falling on regular intervals before Baroda being reduced to 124/4.
Though skipper KH Pandya and Vishnu Solanki (43, 39b, 5x4, 1x6) tried to adorn the innings, adding 95 runs for the fifth wicket, to no avail as Zeeshan Ansari and Prashant Veer managed to remove the two batters before Vipraj Nigam foxed Baroda's last hope A Sheth (46, 28b, 4x4, 3x6) with his google. Besides Ansari and Nigam, part-timers Sameer Rizvi (2/43) and Rinku Singh (1/29) too did well with white ball.
Earlier, openers Abhishek Goswami and Aryan Juyal gave a solid start to UP, stitching together 77 runs for the first wicket. Centurion of the last match, Juyal was the first to go after being caught by Shivalik Sharma off Raj Limbani after making 38-ball 26, containing two hits to the fence.
Goswami made a run-a-ball 51 with the help of seven boundaries and two sixes thereafter, whereas Priyam Garg once again failed with willow, scoring just three runs. But it didn't make any difference to Jurel and Rinku as they put together 131 for the fourth wicket. In his unbeaten knock, Juyal struck 15 boundaries and eight sixes, whereas Rinku struck his second half-century in the event, scoring 63 in 67 balls with the help of two boundaries and three sixes.
One of the top-most buys at this year's IPL auction for CSK, Prashant Veer played a 23-ball cameo to score 35, which contained three boundaries and two sixes and his knock helped Uttar Pradesh post beyond 350-plus runs. For Baroda, Raj Limbani (4/74) and Aryan Chavda (2/46) impressed most.
Now with three wins in as many matches, table topper Uttar Pradesh will play their next match in Group D against Assam on Wednesday....
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