Vijay Hazare Trophy, Punjab vs Saurashtra: Punjab’s opening pair Abhishek Sharma and Prabhsimran Singh registered their names in the record books with a brilliant partnership during the Vijay Hazare Trophy match against Saurashtra at the Gujarat College Cricket Ground in Ahmedabad on Tuesday. The pair put on a brilliant partnership of 298 runs for the first wicket and equaled the second highest opening partnership of the tournament by Bengal’s Sudeep Gharami and Abhimanyu Easwaran in 2022.
The aggressive partnership of Abhishek and Prabhasimran laid a solid foundation for Punjab’s innings. Prabhasimran was the first to complete his century, scoring 125 runs in 95 balls, which included 15 fours and three sixes. His partner Abhishek performed even better and scored 170 runs in just 96 balls. His innings included 22 fours and eight skyscraper sixes, for which Saurashtra bowlers had no answer.
His brilliant innings took Punjab beyond 300 in the 32nd over, due to which the team was moving towards a big score. Thanks to the brilliant performance by the openers, Punjab ended its innings with a huge score of 424 runs for five wickets.
This score is now the joint-fifth highest score in Vijay Hazare Trophy history, equaling Madhya Pradesh’s 424 against Nagaland in 2022. Punjab also became the ninth team in the history of the tournament to cross the 400-run mark.
The record for the highest score in the competition is still held by Tamil Nadu, which scored an unprecedented 506/2 against Arunachal Pradesh in 2022. The partnership between Abhishek and Prabhasimran has joined an elite list of partnerships in Indian domestic cricket.
The record for the highest opening partnership in the Vijay Hazare Trophy – and in all List A cricket – is held by Tamil Nadu’s N. Jagadeesan and B. Sai Sudarshan has a partnership of 416 runs, which was achieved in 2022.
Punjab and Saurashtra scored a total of 791 runs in the match. This score is the second highest match total in the history of the tournament. Earlier in 2022, 805 runs were scored in the Bengal vs Services match in Ranchi.
For Saurashtra, middle-order batsman Arpit Vasavada scored a century. But the team lost by 57 runs, due to which the total score of the match remained nine runs short of the 800-run mark. The highest total in a List A game is 872 runs, scored by South Africa and Australia in the iconic match played in Johannesburg in 2006.
