MS Dhoni shines; Gambhir and Yuvraj fail in Vijay Hazare Trophy

  New Delhi: Veteran Yuvraj Singh looked completely out of sorts as he failed to trouble the scorers with minnows Assam beating Punjab by 3 wickets in a group A League encounter of the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Batting first, Punjab managed 243 in 49.4 overs – a score which was 20 runs below par according to skipper Harbhajan Singh. Assam scored the runs in 48.4 overs outstation recruits KB Arun Karthik (63) and Amit Verma (65) Young U-19 player Shubhman Gill scored 121 off 129 balls and added 141 runs for the fourth wicket with India discard Gurkeerat Singh Mann (58) after Manan Vohra (1), Mandeep Singh (4) and Yuvraj (0) were back in the pavilion. Subhman hit 11 boundaries and a six off 129 balls. Punjab were 19 for 3 inside 6 overs with medium pacer Arup Das (3/27) doing the damage. During the end overs, burly seamer Pritam Laru Das (3/59) also got a few wickets. When Assam batted, Harbhajan Singh (2/42 in 10 overs) was the only bowler who tried keeping things under control but Arun Karthik and Verma added 92 runs for the fourth wicket, which turned out to be crucial. Verma anchored the chase hitting two fours and two sixes off 91 balls. He was finallyout when scores were level. Another veteran India discard Gautam Gambhir scored a duck as Himachal Pradesh hammered Delhi into submission with an emphatic 185-run win in a Vijay Hazare Trophy group B encounter. This is second defeat in a row for young Rishabh Pant-led Delhi. Thy will have to win all their remaining matches in order to harbour hopes of qualifying for the knock-outs.