Venugopal Rao steers Gujarat to victory against Mumbai by 4 wickets

Gujarat chased down the target in the penultimate ball of the match in the Vijay Hazare tournament.

Rajkot: Feb 28, 2014

An unbeaten half century by Venugopal Rao and useful contributions from Dhruv Raval and skipper Parthiv Patel helped Gujarat beat Mumbai by four wickets in West Zone Vijay Hazare One-day tournament.

Gujarat restricted Mumbai to 232 and chased down the target with a ball to spare at Saurashtra Cricket Association (SCA) stadium, Khandheri.
Mumbai skipper Surya Kumar Yadav won the toss and decided to bat first. Sushanth Marathe (0) and Parag Khanpurkar (6) departed early, but Shoaib Sheikh (44) and Surya Kumar Yadav (57) added 76 runs for the third wicket.

For Gujarat, Jasprit Bumrah (2 for 35), Rohit Dahiya (2 for 38) and Jesal Karia (2 for 41) took two wickets each.

Skipper Parthiv Patel and Dhruv Raval started the chase on a positive note, adding 67 runs for the opening wicket in 11 overs before Patel got out. He made 49 runs in 44 balls and hit eight fours while Manprit Juneja, coming at number three, made 29 for his side.

However, Dhawal Kulkarni struck twice in an over as he removed well set Dhruv Raval (61) and Himalaya Barad (0) creating hope for Mumbai to come back in the match.

But Venugopal Rao (58 not out) and Jesal Karia (21 not out) added 42 runs for the seventh wicket and guided their side to its second consecutive win in the tournament.

For Mumbai, Dhawal Kulkarni picked up two wickets conceding 49 runs.

Brief scores:

Mumbai 232 in 50 overs (Surya Kumar Yadav 57, Shoaib Sheikh 44, Jasprit Bumrah 2 for 35) lost to Gujarat 236 for 6 off 49.5 overs (Dhruv Raval 61, Parthiv Patel 49, Venugopal Rao 58*, Dhaval Kulkarni 2 for 49) by 4 wickets.