Maharashtra's Fallah, Andhra's Vihari shine but their teams lose

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You must feel for Samad Fallah. He had bowled his heart out for Maharashtra when they began their defense of a poor 181 (they were bowled out in the 43rd over). But Fallah seemed set to make it up with the ball. An opening spell of 7-1-13-1 was just what his side needed, of course with the expectation that the left-arm seamer would then come back at the backend of the chase to finish things off.

Instead, thanks to the rains coming down hard at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Fallah had no further role to play with the ball, as once the rains stopped and the Jharkhand innings was reduced to 34 overs and no bowler could now bowl more than seven overs. Fallah was a mere spectator as Jharkhand, 25/1 after the first 10 overs and 89/2 in 27 overs when rain stopped play for 57 minutes, got to the revised target of 127 with 8 wickets to spare. The win put them in the semi-final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, where they play Delhi on Thursday.

The first semi-final will be between Mumbai and Hyderabad tomorrow after the latter fought off the challenge posed by a composed Hanuman Vihari to beat Andhra by 14 runs at the Just Cricket Academy ground on the city's outskirts in Bangalore.

Set 282 for a win after Bavanaka Sandeep (96, 97b, 7x4, 1x6) held the Hyderabad innings together as they posted 281 for 8 in 50 overs, Andhra were well served by a 112-run third wicket stand between Vihari and Ricky Bhui (52, 71b, 5x4, 1x6). Vihari, who like Ambati Rayudu of Hyderabad, joined his side for the knockouts, took the game to his neighbours with a polished 99-ball 95 (8x4, 4x6) but once he fell in the 39th over, Hyderabad were all over the Andhra outfit.

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