Vijay Hazare Trophy: Mumbai hammer HP to extend winning streak

Mumbai’s Shardul Thakur celebrates his 50 against HP

The Shreyas Iyer-led Mumbai outfit continued their winning streak in the Vijay Hazare Trophy as they beat Himachal Pradesh (HP) by 200 runs in the last league game at Jaipur on Monday.

Though it looked like a resounding triumph in the end, Mumbai survived an initial scare when their top four batsmen - Yashasvi Jaiswal (2), Prithvi Shaw (2), Iyer (2) and Sarfaraz Khan (11) were back in the dressing room by the 13th over.

However, Suryakumar Yadav (91 in 75 balls, 15x4) and all-rounder Shardul Thakur (92 in 57 balls, 6x4, 6x6) hammered the HP bowlers and showed why they deserve to be in the national team for the upcoming T20I series against England.

Experienced wicketkeeper-batsman Aditya Tare (83 in 98 balls, 6x4, 1x6) too contributed to Mumbai's 321-9 in 50 overs. It was a daunting task for HP as they were bundled out for just 121 in 24.1 overs. Leg-spinner Prashant Solanki claimed 4-31. Left-arm spinner Shams Mulani returned figures of 3-42.

Tare, who was involved in two vital partnerships (99 with Suryakumar and 112 with Thakur for the fourth and fifth wicket respectively), wants players to grab the opportunities in the knockout round in the absence of regular skipper Iyer, Thakur and Suryakumar.

"All three are match-winners and proven players for Mumbai. It's always great when players from the Mumbai team go to the national team. These situations create opportunities for other players," said Tare.

Brief scores
Mumbai 321-9 in 50 overs (S Thakur 92, S Yadav 91, A Tare 83; R Dhawan 4-84, P Jaswal 3-65) beat HP 121 in 24.1 overs (M Dagar 38'; P Solanki 4-31,
S Mulani 3-42, D Kulkarni 2-8) by 200 runs