The Rajasthan cricket team picked up its third successive win in the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2024-25 after brushing aside Meghalaya by six wickets at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday.
Since losing their Group B opener against Maharashtra, the Mahipal Lomror-led Rajasthan side has bounced back in style.
Prior to Saturday’s win over Meghalaya, Rajasthan beat Andhra Pradesh by nine wickets in the second match before clinching a final-over thriller against Himachal Pradesh in the next outing.
Rajasthan chose to bowl first after winning the toss and put on a disciplined performance on the field to restrict Meghalaya to 166. Deepak Hooda’s unbeaten half-century saw them chase down the target in just 32.4 overs.
The Meghalaya cricket team got off to a decent start with openers Arien Sangma and Nishanta Chakraborty putting up 41 on the board for the first wicket.
Kukna Ajay Singh and Manav Suthar managed to dismiss Sangma and Chakraborty, respectively, but a solid 42-run stand between Arpit Bhatewara (26) and Kishan Lyngdoh (27) guided Meghalaya past the 100-mark.
However, Bhatewara departed soon after at the hands of Kamlesh Nagarkoti, triggering a collapse.
Nagarkoti, with 3/52 in 10 overs, and Rahul Chahar, who finished with 3/34 in 9.2 overs, ran through Meghalaya’s batting line-up.
Adarsh Joshi (21*) and Himan Phukan (19) mounted a late resistance to take Meghalaya past 150 before Chahar ended their innings by castling Phukan LBW.
Rajasthan lost both their openers, Ram Chouhan and Abhijeet Tomar, with just 50 on the board but a 63-run stand between captain Lormor and Deepak Hooda set them up for a comfortable chase.
Despite losing Lomror and Kartik Sharma’s wicket, Hooda (60* off 71) remained unbeaten alongside Rajveer Rathore (13) to take Rajasthan past the finish line.
Captain Akash Choudhary was the pick of the Meghalaya bowlers with figures of 2/29 in 10 overs. Adarsh Joshi accounted for the other two Rajasthan wickets.
Rajasthan will play the Services in their next Vijay Hazare Trophy 2024 Group B match on Tuesday.
Rajasthan are in Group B of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, the premier domestic 50-over tournament in India. Meghalaya, Services, Railways, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Meghalaya and Sikkim are the other seven teams in Group B.
Each team will play once against all other teams in the same group in a single round-robin format during the league phase. The top-ranked teams from each of the five groups along with the best second-placed team will directly qualify for the quarter-finals.
The other four second-placed teams meet in the preliminary quarter-finals with the winners filling the last two spots in the quarters.
Rajasthan vs Meghalaya, Vijay Hazare Trophy 2024, brief scores: MEGH 166/10 in 42.2 overs (Kishan Lyngdoh 27, Rahul Chahar 3/34) lost to RAJ 168/4 in 32.4 overs (Deepak Hooda 60*, Akash Choudhary 2/29) by six wickets.
