Vijay Hazare Trophy: Kohli, Pant shine as Delhi down Gujarat

Star batters Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant made solid fifties, while Gujarat batters pressed the self-destruction button as Delhi eked out a narrow seven-run win in their Elite Group D match of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, in Bengaluru, on Friday.

Kohli, who stroked a quickfire 77 from 61 balls, was named player of the match, while Pant returned to form with a fluent 70 from 79 balls to lift Delhi to a modest 254 for 9 in 50 overs.

Despite looking solid in pockets, Gujarat folded for 247 in 47.4 overs.

Kohli and Pant offered the main story thread of the day with knocks of contrasting nature. Kohli had to walk in earlier in this match too after the early departure of opener Priyansh Arya, and looked in excellent touch.

After blocking the first ball, Kohli straight drove pacer Chintan Gaja for a four, manifesting his rich vein of form. 

While other Delhi batters were often pushed to a tight corner by Gujarat bowlers, Kohli was fluency personified in his pet format of the game. 

A pulled six off Gaja and a stunning flicked four off Arzan Nagwaswalla followed as Kohli slipped into the top gear. 

The 37-year-old reached his fifty in 29 balls that had 10 fours and a six in a wonderful exhibition of shot-making. 

The veteran batter brought up his 85th List A half-century off Ravi Bishnoi, carving the leg-spinner for a boundary over the covers. 

A second century on the trot looked a certainty but a lovely ball from left-arm spinner Jayswal (4/42) ended his tenure. 

Jayswal detected Kohli's little shimmy very early, and fired one past the batter to get him stumped by Urvil. Delhi was 108 for four then, and required some momentum to drag the innings back on track. 

A couple of overs back, Jayswal had also accounted for Nitish Rana and Arpit. 

But Delhi found a saviour in skipper Pant, who eschewed his aggressive tendencies to keep his side's innings together. 

There were no archetypal Pant shots until he went past fifty in 64 balls. The first sign of innovation came in the 66th ball when he tried to execute a falling-scoop off Bishnoi, and 12

balls later he again attempted a similar shot off Gaja.

However, Pant's growing impatience finally ended in him losing the sticks to Jayswal, also signalling the end of a 73-run alliance with Harsh Tyagi (40). 

Simarjeet and Ishant Sharma added 19 runs for the final wicket to take Delhi past the 250-run mark.  

Chasing 255 was not precisely a tough target even on a slightly tacky BCCI Centre of Excellence pitch, but Gujarat made heavy weather of it.

In fact, they made a gradual yet confident start with two fine stands -- 67 for the first wicket between Urvil Patel (31) and Aarya Desai (57) followed by a 54-run stand between Aarya and Abhishek Desai, to put Gujarat in control on 121 for 1 in 25 overs. 

But from there they lost Aarya, Abhishek, Jaymeet Patel and Hemang Patel while adding a mere 23 runs to slip to 144 for five. Saurav Chauhan (49, 43b) and Vishal Jayswal added 69 runs for the sixth wicket to keep Gujarat in the hunt.

Chauhan, Kohli's former team-mate Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the IPL, was impressive while hammering Arpit for two sixes to keep the asking rate in check.

But Simarjeet Singh, who copped some stick earlier from Aarya, redeemed himself with the wicket of Chauhan as Gujarat again lost wickets in a cluster in the business end.

The run out of Gaja left Gujarat to make 12 runs off 17 balls with a wicket in hand, but the impressive Prince Yadav (3/37) caught Bishnoi off the guard with a snorter. 

Kohli ran in from covers to gleefully accept the catch and let out a massive roar to signal Delhi's victory. 

Brief Scores: 

Delhi: 254/9 in 50 overs (Virat Kohli 77, Rishabh Pant 70; Vishal Jayswall 4/42) vs Gujarat: 247 all out in 47.4 overs (Aarya Desai 57, Saurabh Chauhan 49; Prince Yadav 3/37, Ishant Sharma 2/28) 
     
Services: 83 all out in 21.5 overs (Rajesh Mohanty 4/25, Sambit Baral 4/21) vs Odisha: 84/6 in 24.3 overs (Sandeep Pattnaik 32 not out; Poonam Poonia 4/27) 

Railways: 266/9 in 50 overs (Ravi Singh 76, Ansh Yadav 59; Satyanarayana Raju 3/41, Narasimha Raju 3/68) vs Andhra: 271/4 in 44.4 overs (Ricky Bhui 76, Nitish Kumar Reddy 55 not out, Hemanth Reddy 41 not out; Karn Sharma 3/46).

Saurashtra: 253 all out in 50 overs (Harvik Desai 101, Sammar Gajjar 83) vs Haryana: 256/4 in 39 overs (Yashvardhan Dalal 164 not out, Parth Vats 67).