Arvind Mann guides Rajasthan to victory

Arvind Mann was the man of the moment for Rajasthan with an excellent all round display as they beat the host Madhya Pradesh by 7 wickets at Captain Roop Singh Stadium, Gwalior on Sunday in the Vijay Merchant Trophy Central Zone League for the under-22.

Being put in to bat first MP batting fell like a house of cards to the hostile bowling of V Yadav 5/31 and P Tiwari 5/29 and finished at 75 all out in 25.1 overs. Wicket keeper B Ranjan took 5 catches behind the stumps. There were as many as four ducks in the MP innings as Shadab Khan top scored with 22. Rajasthan got off to a terrible start as three of the first five wickets to fall were run outs and one was dismissed 'handled the ball'. Rajasthan were 96/5 at that stage. The lower order of Rajasthan batting chipped in with useful runs as their first innings came to an end at 188 in 83 overs. V Bhatt was the most successful bowler with 3/46.

MP had conceded a 113 runs first innings lead and got off to a good start in their second knock. An opening stand of 82 between Manas Pisolkar and P Bhand came to an end when Bhand was dismissed for 26. Pisolkar made amends to the dismal batting display by the whole MP side in the first essay with a superb ton of 113 in 187 balls which included 13 boundaries. Rahul Bakshi 29, Gagandeep Bhatia 33 and Kirti Kapoor 26 helped MP score 285 all out in 96.4 overs. Arvind Mann 4/76 and Vibhore Mathur were the pick of the bowling. Requiring 173 for a win, Rajasthan went about their task with some finesse thanks to an unbeaten 96 (8 fours) by opener Arvind Mann. Mann was well supported by Vinod Chanwaria 27 (5 fours) and Sanjay Bharti 26 not out (3 fours) as Rajasthan cruised to 175/3 in 70.4 overs. Rajasthan took home all eight points leaving MP with none.