Vijay Hazare Trophy 2023 | Tripura stuns Saurashtra with fifties from Das, Chatterjee, Satish and Joydeb’s five-for

Unfancied Tripura stun defending champ Saurashtra in Vijay Hazare Trophy, bowlers disciplined, pressure maintained, skipper Saha proud. #Tripura #Saurashtra #VijayHazareTrophy

 Unfancied Tripura stunned defending champion Saurashtra by 148 runs in the Vijay Hazare Trophy at the Alur Cricket Stadium here on Monday.

On a wicket that was no feather-bed, Tripura scored a competitive 258, with half-centuries from Bikram Kumar Das (59, 76b, 4x4), and the seasoned duo of Sudip Chatterjee (61, 93b, 2x4) and Ganesh Satish (71, 74b, 5x4).

A nearly full-strength Saurashtra, despite having in its midst star batter Cheteshwar Pujara, did not display similar collective spirit and was bundled out for a paltry 110.

The experienced Tripura pacer Manisankar Murasingh struck the first two blows — Harvik Desai was snapped up in the cordon and Chirag Jani saw his stumps rearranged. Rana Datta lured Sheldon Jackson into a lunging drive and had him caught at gully to leave Saurashtra reeling at 13 for three.

Pujara (24, 32b) and Arpit Vasavada (16, 30b) resisted for a while, but pacers Bikramjit Debnath and Abhijit Sarkar triggered another collapse, dismissing Pujara leg-before and castling Vasavada respectively.

Tweaker Joydeb Deb, playing only his second List-A match, ran through the Saurashtra middle and lower-orders, picking up a fifer (five for 15) over one uninterrupted spell of 6.4 overs.

Vishvarajsinh Jadeja, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja and Jaydev Unadkat were trapped in front by the 18-year-old, with all three guilty of exhibiting little to no footwork.