A splendid bowling performance by both the pacers and spinners along with Shubham Chaubey’s unbeaten 85 helped Uttar Pradesh defeat Saurashtra by five wickets in their Group B match of the Vijay Hazare One-Day tournament, on Wednesday.
Electing to bowl, Uttar Pradesh restricted Saurashtra to 189 off 48.5 overs and then chased down the target in 44.4 overs at the Madhavrao Scindia cricket ground.
Pravin Kumar and India pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar took advantage of the early moisture and removed in-form Sheldon Jackson (2) and Avi Barot (1). Piyush Chawla grabbed three wickets for 53 runs, while chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav bagged two wickets.
Indian Test batsman Cheteshwar Pujara and Arpit Vasavada then added 75 runs for the fourth wicket. While Pujara scored 41 while Vasavada made 39. Kamlesh Makawana too chipped in 35.
UP got off to a miserable start with their opener Saurabh Kumar going back to the pavilion on a duck. However, Shubham Chaubey, made unbeaten 85 off 125 deliveries hitting six fours and two sixes and guided the team to victory.
Eklavya Dwivedi scored 39, while Suresh Raina, who was on Tuesday picked up by the Rajkot team for the Indian Premier League, fell cheaply on 18.
